Inter-American Parliamentary Group on Population and Development

The IAPG was founded in 1983 as a result of the Brasilia Declaration of the Western Hemisphere Conference of Parliamentarians on Population and Development held in 1982 in Brazil.

The conference was the culmination of a world-wide initiative by parliamentarians involved in population and development issues. Currently there are several regional parliamentary networks world-wide that seek to raise legislators’ awareness and draw their attention to the links between population and sustainable development with an emphasis on sexual and reproductive rights. The goal of the regional parliamentary networks is to promote an environment favorable to implementing the Cairo Program of Action, adopted at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), which was held in 1994.

The Program of Action (also known as the Cairo agenda) recognizes the indivisible link between population and development. One of the key elements of this program is that it calls on nations to redouble their efforts and financial resources to provide women and their families, amongst others, with access to information, reproductive health services, and education so as to ensure free and informed decision-making about reproductive health.

The IAPG was established as a neutral forum for the exchange of information and experiences, as well as to stimulate open dialogue about population and development. As a result of the adoption of the Cairo Agenda, the IAPG utilizes a broad human rights perspective in the struggle to eradicate poverty and its agenda includes issues such as sexual and reproductive rights, adolescence and youth, the struggle against discrimination, migration, incorporating a gender perspective in public policies, linkages between poverty and reproductive health, reproductive health in conflict situations, trafficking in women and children, and HIV/AIDS.