BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 11. A genius personality, great leader Heydar Aliyev made an invaluable contribution to the formation and development of Azerbaijan's relations with the UN, Head of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) Office in the country Farid Babayev said, Trend reports.
Babayev made the remark during an event on the "Role of Heydar Aliyev in implementation of UN development projects in Azerbaijan".
"During the leadership of Heydar Aliyev, important areas of activity were identified in the implementation of UN development initiatives and measures were taken to establish closer ties between Azerbaijan and the countries of the world, development in the humanitarian and economic spheres,” the UNFPA representative reminded.
According to him, thanks to the social policy of Heydar Aliyev as the leader of the country, and the development processes that began under his leadership, Azerbaijan demonstrates brilliant development indicators in this and many other socio-economic areas.
Besides, Babayev noted that the UNFPA, which has been operating in Azerbaijan for more than 30 years, also provided its support to this development.
"Back in September 1994, Azerbaijan took part in the ‘Population and Development’ conference held in Cairo, the most influential international platform in the field of population and demography,” he said. “The document adopted as a result of this conference is considered the main global framework guiding the activities of the UNFPA for the subsequent period.”
He further noted that over the past almost 30 years, UNFPA activities in Azerbaijan also broadly meant to support the government in addressing the challenges arising from this framework in the national context.
“Indicators related to the population and its structure are the main elements of the security of each country. This is also important in terms of issues such as the preservation of the gene pool of the people, migration and demography,” Babayev explained.
The concept of national development of Azerbaijan, adopted during the leadership of Heydar Aliyev, is based on the social factor - all the goals set and the measures taken ultimately created the conditions for the welfare of the population, strengthening social protection, and developing human capital, he added.
UNFPA started its assistance to the Republic of Azerbaijan in 1994 to address the reproductive health concerns of the population. UNFPA established its full-fledged Country Office in Azerbaijan in 1996 and expanded its operations trough the standalone projects aimed at further expanding access to quality family planning and reproductive health services, as well as increased availability of population data.