On 5th November UNFPA hosted Her Royal Highness Princess Mary of Denmark. The Princess and the Danish delegation including the Danish Ambassador to South Africa, Rene' Dinesen engaged with UNFPA staff and the Youth Advisory Panel. This is the UNFPA youth constituency which is closely working with UNFPA on the youth agenda providing input and guidance on UNFPA support to the adolescent and youth work with government and other partners.
Opening the session UNFPA Country Representative, Dr. Esther Muia, thanked the Danish Delegation for the visit, and highlighted the crucial support Denmark provides to UNFPA globally, contributing to the acceleration and promotion of the ICPD agenda. Denmark has always ranked as a top 5 UNFPA donor and in 2013, contributed to UNFPA core resources of more than 40 million US dollars.
HRH Princess Mary of Denmark stressed her appreciation for the warm welcome, and the purpose of her visit: "We are here to learn from South Africa, to bring back home some of the lessons learned and explore ways to collaborate."
During the session, young people commented on the challenges they are experiencing in South Africa. They spoke about the interventions that government, with support of UNFPA, is implementing to respond to some of those challenges and further analyse the need of the many young girls and boys on a continuous basis.
UNFPA engaged with the Danish Delegation around many topics such as factors contributing to teenage pregnancy, availability of family planning, access sexual and reproductive health and rights and violence experienced by young women.
Following the interaction, UNFPA Country Representative and the Danish Delegation, including the Danish Minister of Trade and Cooperation, Mr. Mogens Jensen, visited the Gender-Based Violence (GBV) Command Centre. The project funded by Vodacom and managed by the Department of Social Development is one of the most important examples of private-public partnership in responding to GBV in South Africa. The main objective of the project is to help the Department become more responsive in providing services and support to victims of gender-based violence.
Present at the visit Department of Social Development Director Deputy-General, Ms. Vilakazi, stressed the importance such projects as innovation that integrates and coordinates a harmonised approach to mitigating gender-based violence.
UNFPA stressed the importance of government leadership: "government leadership and coordination is essential to bring the GBV agenda forward, together with the contribution from private sector". UNFPA is strengthening its collaboration with private sector, aiming at introducing innovation to increase the living conditions of South Africans.
The visit concluded with a walk through the GBV command centre, where guests were able to engage with social workers who shared their experiences.
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