The UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Jordan on World Population Day 2021

Your Excellency Abla Amawi, Secretary General of the Higher Population Council.

Dear colleagues and distinguished guests,

It is my great pleasure to join you today along with my UNFPA colleagues to mark this year’s World Population Day, which is being observed for the second year in a row under difficult circumstances.

We define gender equality, and we define the question of reproductive rights, as a women's issue. It is not. It is not at all.

It's an issue for us all, including men.

I think before we, both men and women, realize that women's rights are also a men's issue, it will be very difficult to make progress.

I've been on this topic for more than 25 years, and I must admit that I'm starting to get very impatient, and I'm almost starting to get a little bit angry. And not angry at anyone in particular, but angry at ourselves, that we simply cannot move forward fast enough.

While I'm acknowledging and recognizing that we are making progress, the world has become much, much better over the last 30 years. The rights of women have even become better in many places, including in Jordan. But, it's not moving fast enough. And I think the embarrassment is actually that we haven't come further.

Now, I'm convinced that in time, this will change. Because this is maybe one of the absolutely most important topics that we have to cover. I think sometimes, we are complicating this far too much. 

How many do you think are out there who actually know what reproductive rights are?  It's about sex, and it's about power struggles and power relations between men and women. That's what it is.

And it's fundamentally about non-discrimination.

I think that we all we would absolutely stand up and say nobody would be in favor of discrimination. Can you imagine anyone saying that? But, that's actually what we are accepting.

We're accepting that there is discrimination between men and women, and men have the upper hand. I think that's what we have to find a way to fight. 

The question I'm asking myself today, as a UN colleague, as a male member of society, is what is it that we can do?



Because it's right we are doing all these actions, we speak to the policymakers, we speak to government, we speak to people, we speak at occasions like this and we're supposed to celebrate, but, again, it's simply not doing the trick.

I think what we have to think about together when we meet on an occasion like this is: what can we do differently? How is it that we seriously are going to move that famous needle? Because what we're doing is not going to make it work.

Now, unfortunately, what we're facing is that COVID hasn't done many good things. And I think that Enshrah and Abla, really put in all the figures, and the statistics can be an extremely powerful message. You can run down the numbers and you come down with a very sobering message.

Now the dilemma is, COVID actually has taken us back on almost every development area, more than three decades. Can you imagine, more than 30 years of hard work by many people have been, literally speaking, eradicated in less than 18 months? 

You have an increase in gender-based violence, primarily within the homes, primarily between people that know each other very, very well, by more than 30%. Isn't that figure itself absolutely mind-boggling?

Do you know that you have a female labor participation rate in Jordan, of less than 14%? Not only is that actually an issue of pride, but we also know that more than 60% of all women want to work. There's a huge gap.

I'm really asking myself once again, what is it that we can do differently? If I had the answer I would provide you with it, but I don't.  We have to really sit down and think it through, and not believe that, just by doing more of the same, is going to make a difference. It won't, it simply won't. 

We have to stand up and fight for this, otherwise, it won't happen.

I'm really looking, once again, at the men too. What is it that we can contribute? Because it's in our interest that we actually see a change in this regard. 

So really, all colleagues, stand up, stand up for the right stand up for the rights of women, because we are men. 

Thank you so much.