Solidarity remarks

Good afternoon,

Honourable Minister(s), Government Officials, Director of Ceremonies, Ambassadors, Representatives of International Organizations, members of the UNFPA country team, members of the media, ladies and gentlemen,

I’d like to thank the Ministry of Health and Child Care and the United Nations Population Fund for extending to me the invitation to join you today to express solidarity on behalf of the Government of Canada.

I would like to congratulate the Government of Zimbabwe and UNFPA for their achievements in implementing the Country Programme of Cooperation (2022-2026).   The Programme’s goals of ending maternal deaths, ending gender-based violence, meeting family planning needs and ending HIV infections are fundamental to building a safer and more equitable Zimbabwe for women and girls and to supporting Zimbabwe to meet its development goals.

Canada supports the goal of ensuring that women and girls in all their diversity can decide what to do with their bodies, their lives and their futures – without question.  Sexual and reproductive health is a precondition for women’s empowerment and a crucial link to all aspects of development.   This is why Canada is a lead donor globally supporting comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights as key element of our Feminist International Assistance Policy. 

In 2019, Canada made an historic 10-Year Commitment to improve the health and rights of women and girls around the world.  Globally, Canada commits an average of $1.4 billion annually to improve the health and rights of women and girls, half of which is dedicated to sexual and reproductive health and rights.  This commitment includes $700 million per year to advance sexual and reproductive health and rights.  

This commitment was reinforced at the Women Deliver Conference in Kigali, Rwanda in July 2023 – one of the world’s largest gatherings on gender equality and the health, rights and well-being of women and girls – when Canada announced more than $200 million in funding, included funding to UNFPA.

I share these figures to illustrate that Canada is both a donor and a partner in championing the Programme of Action – around the world and here in Zimbabwe. 

Today offers us a valuable opportunity to reflect on Zimbabwe’s progress towards the Programme of Action, which it adopted in 1994 along with 178 other Member States.   We must acknowledge and celebrate the achievements while we reckon with the challenges that remain. 

Canada stands with the Government of Zimbabwe and UNFPA, local civil society and women’s organizations, advocates, activists, private sector enterprises and international NGOs that are working in collaboration or in their own way here in Zimbabwe to meet our shared goals of:

• Zero maternal deaths
• Zero unmet need for family planning
• Zero gender-based violence and harmful practices
• Zero new HIV infections

Thank you, Merci.