Global population development effort records achievement - Report
The 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) held in Cairo, Egypt, was undoubtedly, a milestone in the history of population and development, as well as in the history of women's rights.
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At the conference the world agreed that population is not just about counting people, but about making sure that every person counts.
Twenty years after the consensus by countries to deliver human rights-based development, it bacame necessary to review the ICPD programme of work to influence the future of global population and development policy at national, regional and global levels.
The review process, popularly referred to as the ‘ICPD Beyond 2014’ engaged world leaders from governments and civil society, with the aim to create a renewed consensus and global commitment to create a more equal and more sustainable world.
The Review identified progress and achievements towards the goals set out in the Programme of Action, bringing out the evidence of what has worked and where challenges remain.
Results of the review
The ICPD report is ‘a minefield of information’.
It indicates that achievements over the ensuing 20 years have been remarkable, including gains in women’s equality, population health and life expectancy, educational attainment, and human rights protection systems, with an estimated one billion people moving out of extreme poverty.
Advances in maternal and child health and family planning in the past two decades have also been considerable, yet 800 women a day died from causes related to pregnancy or childbirth in 2010, and an estimated 8.7 million young women aged 15 to 24 in developing countries resorted to unsafe abortions in 2008.
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The advent of anti-retrovirals (ARVs) has averted 6.6 million HIV and AIDS related deaths – including 5.5 million in low- and middle-income countries – but new infections continue to rise, or declines have stalled, in far too many countries.
Population
The report further indicate that fears of population growth that were already abating in 1994 have continued to ease, and the expansion of human capability and opportunity, especially for women, which has led to economic development, has been accompanied by continued decline in the population growth rate from 1.52 per cent per year in 1990-1995 to 1.15 in 2010-2015.
However, the Review also makes clear that progress has been unequal and fragmented, and new challenges, realities and opportunities have emerged.
Unequal progress
According to the report, research suggests a significant positive correlation between female education, healthier families, and stronger Gross Domestic Product growth.
Gains in girls’ educational attainment is contributing to both Asia’s and Latin America’s success in the knowledge-based economy.
Yet belief in and commitment to gender equality is not universal, and gender-based discrimination and violence continue to plague most societies. Beyond the discrimination experienced by women and girls are persistent inequalities faced by those with disabilities, indigenous peoples, racial and ethnic minorities, and persons of diverse sexual orientation and gender identity, among others.
While a core message of the ICPD was the right of all persons to development, the rise of the global middle-class has been shadowed by persistent inequalities both within and between countries.
The review further noted that many of the estimated one billion people living in the 50-60 countries caught in “development traps” of bad governance, wasted natural resource wealth, lack of trading partners, or conflict have seen only limited gains in health and well-being since 1994, and some are poised to become poorer as the rest of the global population anticipates better livelihoods.
It is in these countries, and among poorer populations within wealthier countries, that women’s status, maternal death, child marriage, and many other concerns of the ICPD have seen minimal progress since 1994, and life expectancies continue to be unacceptably low.
Furthermore, the threats to women’s survival are especially acute, due to the lack of access to health services, particularly sexual and reproductive health services, and the extreme physical burdens of food production, water supply and unpaid labour that fall disproportionately on poor women, the report added.
New challenges, realities and opportunities
The review also established that dramatic decline in global fertility since the ICPD has led to a decrease in the population growth rate, but due in part to demographic inertia the world’s population crossed the seven billion mark in late 2011, and UN medium variant fertility projections anticipate a population of 8.4 billion by 2030.
Most developed countries and several developing countries are already characterised by ageing populations, with declining proportions of young people and working age adults.
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Demographic bonus
At the opposite extreme, the report said, high total fertility rates of more than 3.5 children per women are now confined to just 49 poor countries, mostly in Africa and South Asia, which make up less than 13 per cent of the world population. These and other developing countries are still characterised by increasing proportions of young and working-age persons, which under the right circumstances, including fertility decline, can lead to a temporary demographic bonus, but at the same time challenge governments to ensure adequate access to education and employment.
Declining fertility rates are providing low- and middle-income countries with a window of opportunity because the proportion of the population that is in the young working years is historically high, relative to the number of children and working people.
It indicated that Sub-Saharan Africa will experience a particularly rapid increase in the coming decade, and an even more rapid increase in the population aged 25-59 adding that young people can – if provided with education and employment opportunities – support higher economic growth and development.
In addition, access to cell phones and the internet has raised aspirations of young people today for lives previously unimagined and informed many of them of their human rights and the inequalities they experience.
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Migration
Touching on internal migration, the report said more than half the human population became urban by 2008, and cities and towns are now growing at an estimated 1.3 million persons per week, a result of both natural increase and migration. “And while the growing internal migration of young people into urban areas represents gains in agency, freedom and opportunity, migrants experience a host of vulnerabilities, often living under appalling conditions, without secure housing, social support or access to justice.”
International migration on the other hand has become a key feature of globalisation in the 21st century.
Attracted by better living and working conditions and driven by economic, social and demographic disparities, conflict and violence, some 230 million people, three per cent of the world’s population, currently live outside their country of origin.
The report also called for global leadership on environmental sustainability as the world faces threats to the environment due to the increase in greenhouse gas emissions.
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