Cairo Conference reaches consensus on plan to stabilize world growth by 2015.

Against a backdrop streaked with controversy and under the intense spotlight of unprecedented world media attention, the international Conference on Population and Development reached consensus--despite some widely divergent viewpoints--on a worldwide strategy to curb global population growth over the next 20 years and achieve sustained economic growth and sustainable development.

At the heart of the work of the Conference--the fifth UN global meeting on population issues--was, in the words of UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the "search for an equilibrium between humanity and its environment and, ultimately, the means to sustain life on earth". in that light, he felt the widespread public attention to controversial issues debated at the Conference was "essentially encouraging", since it helped raise consciousness of important issues and mobilize public opinion significant action. Such critical matters could not be considered "without causing ripples and even some storms", he said.

Convened in Cairo, Egypt from 5 to 13 September, the Conference adopted without a vote a 16-chapter Programme of Action, calling for action to stabilize world population growth at below estimates of 7.5 billion by the year 2015 in the context of sustainable development.

In its preamble, the Programme states that the Conference represented "the last opportunity" in the twentieth century to collectively address the critical challenges and interrelationships between population and development. The Programme of Action, according to Dr. Nafis Sadik, Executive Director of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and Conference Secretary-General, had the potential "to change the world".

Delegations from more than 180 countries, which included a number of Heads of State or Government, were joined at the Conference by thousands of participants from non-governmental and other grass-roots organizations, intergovernmental bodies and the media--an indication of the importance attached by the people of the world to a meeting convened for the people of the world.

Four previous UN population conferences have been convened at the global level: Rome (1954); Belgrade (1965); Bucharest (1974) and Mexico City (1984). The first World Population Plan of Action was adopted in 1974 and was reviewed and supplemented at the 1984 Conference by a set of recommendations for its further implementation.

Mindful of the need to continue to consider population issues at a high level, the UN Economic and Social Council in July 1989 called for the convening of an international conference on population. The General Assembly, in 1992 and 1993, stressed "the need for comprehensive national population policies based on national priorities and compatible with sustained economic growth and sustainable development". (See special Conference background section, UN Chronicle, September 1994, Volume XXXI, No. 3).

'The destiny of the human being'

In an opening address on 5 September, Mr. Boutros-Ghali underscored his belief that "the efficacy of the economic order of the planet on which we live" depended in great measure on the results of the Conference. Delegates to UN conferences in the economic and social spheres were currently considering the "destiny of the human being". Three principles of human conduct--"rigour, tolerance and conscience"--should, in his view, set the tone and guide Conference deliberations. He reiterated the need to support population policies, since "it would be inadmissible to rely on some kind of law of nature"--to allow wars, disasters, famine or disease to regulate the world's demographic growth. He also stressed the important role that women must play in development.

In view of the social and ethical questions under discussion, he said, all delegates should be tolerant and respectful of the sensitivities of others. in the end, the Secretary-General said, men and women throughout the world must have not only the right but also the means to choose their families' futures. Egyptian President Mohamed Hosni Mubarak, a winner of the 1994 UN Population Award, was acclamation as Conference President. He told delegates that solutions to population problems must transcend mere "demographics" and be elaborated in close relation to the problems of social, economic and cultural development.

Among the dignitaries who spoke was Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland of Norway, who told the Conference that for too many women in too many countries, real development had only been an illusion. Morality had become "hypocrisy" when it meant accepting mothers suffering or dying in connection with unwanted pregnancies and illegal abortions, and unwanted children living in misery, she said.

Vice-President Albert Gore of the United States, mindful that no single solution was sufficient, spoke of a "holistic" and comprehensive approach to the world's population problems, as well as to the persistent high level of poverty. in his words, democracy, economic reform, low rates of inflation, low levels of corruption, sound environmental stewardship, free and open markets at home and access to markets in the developed countries were essential.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, stating that her country was one of the largest Muslim countries, with the ninth largest population on earth, said population growth must be checked so that the people would not have a future of hunger and poverty. The empowerment of women was a means to reach that end. The outcome of the Conference, she said, must not be viewed as a universal charter imposing sex education and abortion on individual cultures opposing such policies.

Prince Mbilini, Prime Minister of Swaziland, told participants that key issues before the Conference were directly relevant to Africa, where population growth played a critical role in its continued underdevelopment. He asked that donor communities increase their assistance to African States, commensurate with the magnitude of their economic problems.

Six-day debate

During a six-day general debate, more than 200 speakers shared their experiences and concerns related to population and development strategies. In view of the Conference's broad mandate to consider development issues and their linkages, the debate touched on a wide range of subjects, including poverty and economic disparities, patterns of production and consumption, world trade, the environment, the family structure, health care and education. While there was religious and philosophical disagreement on some key issues, the speeches overwhelmingly reflected support for the new Programme of Action, a commonality of concern and a dedication to "people-centred" development policies.

Most participants supported the premise that population policies must be based on freedom of choice and the rights of the individual, as well as the rights of women and of individual cultures. It was acknowledged that abortion was a very sensitive issue and many agreed that family planning, along with a full range of reproductive and primary health care services, was the key to reducing a woman's recourse to abortion.

Some speakers stressed that their countries were not attempting to create an international right to abortion, or to advocate or promote the practice; rather, they wished to address it as a public health issue.

Many Latin American delegates spoke of their belief that the family was the basic unit of society, as well as the main agent for transmitting and developing values.

The majority of speakers underscored the view that the formulation and implementation of population policies were essentially the responsibility and sovereign right of individual nations, in conformity with their own laws and national circumstances, as well as with international human rights standards.

Many speakers from developing countries lamented that their spiralling populations were eating away the fruits of their development efforts. India said it was necessary to "put an immediate brake on the population growth and break the nexus between overpopulation and poverty". Some felt that poverty, particularly among women, was a cause and an effect of population growth, and that improving the lives of poor women was the key to poverty alleviation. It was widely agreed that for current population policies to be successful, the international community must address the fundamental issue of transforming countries from economically backward societies into modern ones, where people would be ready to implement new and radical ideas.

Many speakers stressed that population growth in the developing world was not the only threat to the planet's survival; rather, unsustainable consumption patterns in the industrialized world represented an equally grave concern. It was generally agreed that these countries must take the lead and act immediately to alter these destructive patterns and develop environmentally sound technologies.

European nations spoke of their growing concerns over the shrinking and ageing of their populations, which was linked to declining fertility rates, among other factors.

RELATED ARTICLE: Planet Earth: An urban experience

Recognizing that the future of the planet will be an urban one, two new UN studies focus on the problems resulting from mankind's move to the city. Population, Urbanization and Quality of Life, prepared by the UN Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat) as its contribution to the Cairo Conference, points to some positive aspects of urbanization. That process might be the most powerful long-term factor in the spontaneous decrease in overall rates of population growth, since such growth generally falls as living conditions improve.

A second study, by the Population Division of the UN Department for Economic and Social information and Policy Analysis, is entitled The Challenge of Urbanization: The World's Large Cities. It contains profiles of more than 100 of the largest cities and highlights the wide diversity of experience of these cities with regard to demographic characteristics, economic structures, levels of infrastructure, and degrees of intervention in the planning process.