(Seychelles News Agency) - Seychelles is committed to improving universal health coverage management through people-centred systems, President Danny Faure told fellow leaders at the Nairobi Summit, State House said on Tuesday.

This is one of the several targets Seychelles is committed to attain in the health and social development arena, Faure pledged at the summit of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Kenya.  

“We are committed to maintain a minimum of 10 percent of the annual budget towards the national health sector to create financing momentum. We further commit to provide support to civil society organisations to access funding for health-related projects, including sexual and reproductive health, during the period of 2020-2025 and beyond,” he said.

The President of Seychelles, an archipelago in the western Indian Ocean, pledged to strive for zero preventable maternal, neonatal and child deaths, and ensure zero unmet needs for family planning information and services by 2023.

He also committed to integrate a comprehensive package of sexual and reproductive health interventions into national policies and strategies.

A National Framework for Action on Healthy Ageing by 2022 will be set up and the fight against gender-based violence and gender stereotyping will continue, added Faure.

He also spoke on the government’s commitment to ensure older people are empowered to age actively and healthily with equal rights in society, and this will be done through a review of policies governing the home care scheme by 2020. A comprehensive programme for elderly care by 2022 will also be developed.

On the issue of gender-based violence, Faure pledged to review all discriminatory laws by 2021 and conduct a comprehensive review of education and training policies and programmes to identify gender stereotyping by 2022.

Kenya is hosting the summit which marks the 25^th anniversary of the ICPD under the theme ‘Accelerating the Promise’. The summit, organised in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), is expected to galvanise partnerships, mobilise political and financial support and help foster ideas and commitments on how to fully realise the goals of the ICPD.

The International Conference on Population and Development, adopted by 179 governments in 1994, recognises that reproductive health as well as women’s empowerment and gender equality, are the pathway to sustainable development.