Choices and responsibilities: finding the balance - world population

UN Chronicle, Sept, 1994

In 1994, world population will grow by a record 91 million, to more than 5.6 billion people. Some 950 million will be added during this decade alone, nearly all in developing countries. Indeed, while it took 123 years for the world population to increase from I billion to 2 billion, the transition from 5 billion to 6 billion, currently underway, is expected to take only 11 years.

Such a rapidly increasing population weighs heavily on the earth's resources and environment, and severely hinders human efforts to provide employment, housing and social services for the citizens of this planet.

To forge consensus on the path towards a more sustainable balance between human numbers and limited natural resources, decision makers and political leaders from all countries of the world and all sectors of society will convene in Cairo, Egypt, from 5 to 13 September 1994 for the UN-sponsored International Conference on Population and Development.

Dr. Nafis Sadik, Executive Director of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and Conference Secretary-General, in a special message prepared for the Conference's newsletter "Population 94", said that the Conference "will remind the international community that population problems are among the most serious threats to the attainment of sustained growth and sustainable development". The gathering "will strive to transform the heightened awareness of current and emerging population issues into operational strategies for effective and comprehensive programmes".

The major underlying theme of the Conference is to address the links between population, the environment, sustained economic growth and sustainable development. Related aims include: integrating population concerns into development activities; stabilizing population growth rates to balance human demands with available resources; and addressing important demographic trends, such as urbanization, national and international migration, and ageing.

"No lasting solution to problems of the environment and poverty can be found without resolving population issues", according to Dr. Sadik. "Refining strategic population and development goals, particularly at the operational level, extending the outreach and effectiveness of population programmes, and securing commitments and resources over the long term will pave the way for sustained and sustainable development."

The Conference will also emphasize choices and responsibilities, with key issues to include: enabling informed choices by ensuring access to safe and affordable family planning methods; acknowledging the need for better health care, housing, education and other measures to alleviate poverty; creating greater economic opportunities for women; and increasing domestic spending and international assistance for population activities.

"The 1994 Conference is not just about policies and goals, demographic change and development at the macro level. It is also about improving the quality of life at the individual level", Dr. Sadik went on to state in her message. "We must remember the women, men and children throughout the world who suffer from hunger, poor health and premature death: the women and adolescent girls who die or are disabled due to inadequate reproductive health services; the large numbers of children, especially girls, who are out of school; the families crowded into urban slums; or the migrants from rural areas whose land-holdings have become too fragmented or eroded to provide a living. Making family planning as widely available as possible to both women and men, improving maternal and child health, and advancing women's status, education and options can contribute to slower, more balanced population growth and a sustainable future."

Family planning is key

Key to managing population growth, say experts, is meeting the need for family planning services and bringing fertility rates--the number of children born to a typical woman manageable levels.

Indeed, voluntary family planning programmes have been shown in a number of countries to be effective in substantially changing fertility patterns in as few as 10 years. Such efforts have proven to be most successful when used in conjunction with poverty alleviation and improvements in health, education and women's status.

But easing the pressure of the expanding human community on the environment and resources involves not only reduction of high population growth, but also a re-examination of the lifestyles and consumption and production patterns of the more affluent, who are responsible for a disproportionate share of natural resource use and pollution.

Reducing the harmful impact of population growth and concentration on the availability of fresh water, soils, forests and other natural resources will require a combination of slower population growth, more rational population distribution, alleviation of poverty, environmentally safer consumption patterns, and other measures to achieve sustainable development and resources use.

Background

The UN Economic and Social Council called for convening the UN Conference on Population and Development in 1989, stressing the need for continued attention to population issues at a high level, and designated the Population Commission as the Conference preparatory body. In 1993, the General Assembly decided that the Preparatory Committee for the Conference should become one of its subsidiary bodies.