NGLS Roundup 73, June 2001

COMMISSION ON POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT, 34TH SESSION

INTRODUCTION

The 34th session of the Commission on Population and Development (CPD) met at United Nations headquarters in New York from 2-4 April 2001 to consider the links between population, development and the environment. The theme offered the Commission an opportunity to provide input to the World Summit on Sustainable Development, to be held in 2002 in Johannesburg (South Africa), which will undertake the ten-year review of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED).

During the CPD session Member States exchanged views and national experiences on the complex linkages between population, development and the environment, and reviewed follow-up actions to the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Programme of Action. They also considered ways to implement the ten-year review and appraisal in 2004 of the ICPD Programme of Action. The Commission convened an expert panel of representatives from different regions on themes of the Commission. It was also briefed by other divisions of the UN secretariat and agencies on their work in the field of population, and on the status of preparations for upcoming UN conferences.

The CPD session, chaired by Makoto Ato (Japan), adopted resolution E/CN.9/2001/L.4 on Population, Environment and Development. It requests the Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) to continue its research on the linkages between population, consumption and production, the environment and natural resources, and human health in close cooperation with other relevant UN bodies. The Commission requested that this and other research contribute to the review and appraisal of implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action. The Commission also approved the provisional agenda for its 35th session, to be held in April 2002, on the theme of reproductive rights and reproductive health, with special reference to HIV/AIDS.

Despite extensive negotiations, the Commission was unable to reach consensus on two draft resolutions: one on the ten-year review of the ICPD Programme of Action, and the other on financial resources for its implementation. The Bureau of the CPD had recommended that in 2004 the Commission focus on the ten-year anniversary of the Programme of Action, and that the meeting could be marked, among other things, by organizing an international event. However, Member States were unable to reach an agreement on the form of the review in 2004.

WORLD POPULATION MONITORIN

To facilitate discussions, the Commission had before it four reports by the Secretary-General: Concise report on world population monitoring, 2001: population, environment and development (E/CN.9/2001/2); World demographic trends (E/CN.9/2001/4); Flow of financial resources for assisting in the implementation of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (E/CN.9/2001/3); and Programme implementation and progress of work in the field of population in 2000: Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs (E/CN.9/2001/5).

The first report highlights what is described as extraordinary and rapid global population growth and economic development in the 20th century. From 1900 to 2000, world population increased from 1.6 billion to 6.1 billion people. While the world’s population increased fourfold, real gross domestic product (GDP) increased 20 to 40 times, which allowed the world to not only sustain a much larger population, but to do so at much higher standards of living. However, the report says, relatively rapid population growth and economic development occurred unevenly.

Trends in population growth, economic development and environmental change are well-documented, according to the report, although how these interact is not well-established. The report notes that continued population growth is an important aspect of environmental stress since it increases aggregate economic demand and hence the volume of pollution-causing production. Population growth is often seen as a major driving force to increase food production and the environmental stresses from agriculture on water, soil and forests. The report says environmental stress is not only linked to population change but also to current and future patterns of production and consumption. The report analyzes the effects of increasing urbanization around the world, which it identifies as one of the most important trends of the 21st century, as well as the effects of migration on environmental degradation, and the effects of environmental degradation on health, fertility and mortality.

The report on world demographic trends highlights three critical global demographic developments. First, world population growth is expected to continue although there will be significant national and regional differences. Europe’s population growth is expected to decline relatively rapidly, while the population in Africa will grow significantly. Second, most countries and regions will experience an accelerated growth of their elderly populations, with the exception of Africa where the rate of ageing of the population is expected to be moderate. The phenomenon is, the report says, a result of declining fertility and increased longevity. Third, the global HIV/AIDS pandemic is expected to have an impact on global demographic trends, with the number of people living with the disease increasing in all countries and regions. As a result, nearly 50 million deaths from AIDS are predicted worldwide over the next 15 years.

SUBSTANTIAL CHANGES IN WORLD POPULATION

Joseph Chamie, Director of the UN Population Division, stressed during the opening plenary the importance of population projections for policies, plans and programmes related to, among other things, education, health care, social services, housing, employment, social security and pensions, defence, economic markets, product and service provision and development, as well as political representation. He said the UN estimates that the world’s population will be substantially larger in the future: in the year 2050 world population will be between 7.9 billion and 10.9 billion. Nearly all of the growth will occur in the less developed regions. Today six countries account for half of the world’s annual growth of 77 million people: India, China, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh and Indonesia. The annual population growth of India alone, according to Mr. Chamie, is equal to the growth of the next three countries combined (China, Pakistan and Nigeria). In 2050 India is projected to be larger than China—with a population of 1.6 billion versus 1.5 billion in China.

Mr. Chamie identified fertility as the determining factor in population growth in some countries, while populations in countries such as Japan, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Russian Federation, Georgia and Ukraine are projected to be significantly smaller. Differences in fertility are related to low mortality, urbanization, education and employment of women. He said the devastating impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the hardest-hit countries translated into increased morbidity, mortality and population loss. However, despite the impact of the pandemic, the population in African countries is expected to grow from 794 million people today to two billion in 2050.

The future global population will be significantly different from today, said Mr. Chamie. In addition to being substantially larger, the global population is expected to be significantly older, more concentrated in developing countries and more urban.

Joel Cohen, Professor at Columbia University in the United States, emphasized that the linkages between population, environment and development could not be understood without including a fourth element: culture. “Culture matters,” said Mr. Cohen, who defined the concept as including politics, technology, law, institutions and values. Without understanding all these aspects, there was little chance of understanding how population, development and the environment interacted. He said technological changes such as nitrogenous fertilizers, antibiotics and weapons of mass destruction—components of cultural change—had had implications for population, development and environment. “What you value and what you choose to do as an influential member of national and global culture will affect population, the environment and development and the links among them,” he noted.

NEED FOR INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

During the general debate there was recognition among Member States that population growth and distribution were affected by economic growth, and needed to be included in sustainable environment policies. Throughout the debate developing countries emphasized that their experiences with population, development, economic growth and the environment were very different from those of developed nations.

The Group of 77 developing countries (G-77) and China emphasized that population growth, although not the only factor, exacerbated over-use and degradation of natural resources. The G-77 pointed out that population growth had an impact on the availability and quality of fresh water, deterioration of urban environments, air pollution, and land degradation. Whereas the developed countries were mainly concerned with pollution and quality of natural resources, it argued, the main concern of developing countries was scarcity of resources and lack of access to them. 

The G-77 stressed that the developed countries, with one-fifth of the world’s population, were consuming most of the global resources and has consumption patterns that were far from sustainable. It pointed out that population growth in developing countries and the subsequent need for more food production had led to expansion of cultivation areas and changes in land use patterns. These had adversely impacted the environment in the form of land loss and degradation.

The G-77 also underlined the importance of equitable access to natural resources. It called for their sound management and for control of the adverse environmental impacts of population and economic growth on the environment, both at the national and international level.

The G-77 said urbanization was having an especially negative impact on the environment in both developed and developing countries. To help developing countries manage their burgeoning urban areas more efficiently it called for capacity building through, among other things, increased flows of resources, transfer of new and innovative technologies and know-how, and exchange of experiences on environmental and health policies in urban areas.

The G-77 also underlined the need for international partnership to ensure implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action and commitments made. It referred to the report on Flow of financial resources for assisting in the implementation of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development, prepared for the Commission by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). It shows that external financial assistance for population activities—such as bilateral and multilateral funding and development bank grants—has declined in 1998 and 1999. This trend is worrying, the G-77 said, as many developing countries especially in Africa and the least developed countries (LDCs) were unable to generate the necessary domestic resources to finance their national population programmes.

The European Union (EU), speaking on behalf of its Member States as well as the Central and Eastern European countries associated with it, pointed out that the world’s population depended on the environment for its existence. Population dynamics should not be seen as a problem as such, it said. People and their activities, the EU said, provided both the challenges and solutions to environmental degradation.

The EU identified poverty as a contributing factor to environmental degradation. At the same time, it said, “environmental degradation itself aggravates poverty and promotes social exclusion as well as self exclusion.” The EU said that unsustainable patterns of consumption and production were one of the main threats to the global environment. “All people are affected, but the consequences for the poor are especially serious,” it said. Among other things, the EU confirmed its continued support to developing countries in their efforts to achieve international development targets, including those of the ICPD Programme of Action and ICPD+5. In this context the EU reaffirmed its commitment to reaching the official development assistance (ODA) target of 0.7% of gross national product as soon as possible. 

Canada said that global sustainable development was most threatened when population growth was coupled with the emergence of modern consumer markets in large urban centers. Major threats to the environment were the accelerating trend of urbanization and development of mega-cities; climate change; the global fresh water crisis and its consequences for food security and the environment; unsustainable exploitation and depletion of natural resources; and accelerating land degradation. Canada pointed out that the need to respond to economic crises often deflected government attention from addressing environmental concerns. Given the complex interaction between population, economic development and environmental change, it said policies that promoted economic development could not produce the expected results unless they were appropriately integrated with population and environmental policies.

During the debate delegations, especially from Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean, highlighted the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic on their populations and development goals. South Africa pointed out that the pandemic had dramatically affected the country’s poverty eradication strategies, and it had not been able to respond successfully to factors such as globalization, migration and environmental degradation.

DEBATE ON FOLLOW-UP ACTIONS TO ICPD+5

During discussions, the form of a ten-year review in 2004 of implementation of the ICPD proved to be a contentious issue on which the Commission was unable to agree. Some delegations proposed the ten-year review be organized as a special session of the UN General Assembly. Others argued that there should not exist a pattern of automatically convening a special session to mark the five or ten-year review of a UN conference. Instead they suggested the review be a more technical event limited to focusing on population and development challenges ahead. The primary responsibility for organizing such a review, they said, should rest with the Commission.

PANEL DISCUSSIONS ON LINKAGES

During a panel discussion on the linkages between population, development and the environment, Bertil Egero of the Programme on Population and Development at the University of Lund (Sweden) said better technology was only one of the reasons advanced nations had some control over their environmental pollution. Another reason was that these nations were able to dump waste away from their habitats, and locate polluting industries elsewhere.

Prijono Tjiptoherijanto, Head of the National Agency for Civil Service of Indonesia and Professor at the University of Indonesia, described the relation between population, environment and development as an emerging issue in Indonesia but with diverging views in the country. Some in the country felt that population growth would increase environmental degradation, while others felt that poverty, inappropriate technologies and ineffective policies had a more detrimental effect on the environment. This showed the need for new paradigms to understand the issue.

Elena Zuniga, Director of Population Studies at the National Population Council of Mexico, said population policies were crucial in reducing regional imbalances in Latin America and the Caribbean. In Latin American countries economic development was characterized by extreme inequality in income distribution, and the combination of poverty and population increase had had severe consequences for the environment. Ms. Zuniga noted that Latin America was the most urbanized region in the world, with three-fourths of the population living in urban areas. Rapidly growing cities were often forced to spread into surrounding areas, thus contributing to environmental degradation. Also the lack of water supplies and locations for water disposal in some large cities, together with heavy air pollution from automobiles, added to environmental stress.

IMPACT OF POPULATION ISSUES

Martin Belinga-Eboutou (Cameroon), President of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), stressed when addressing the Commission that population issues had an impact on all aspects of development. They were multi-sectoral by nature and required a multidisciplinary approach. The work of the Commission was a valuable contribution to events such as the Third UN Conference on the Least Developed Countries, held in May 2001 in Brussels (Belgium), and the General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS in June 2001 in New York, he said.

Thoraya Obaid, Executive Director of UNFPA, pledged the Fund’s full cooperation with Member States to ensure implementation of ICPD recommendations and strengthened partnership with the UN Population Division to address population and development challenges. She said UNFPA, as task manager for demographic dynamics and sustainable development in follow-up to the 1992 Earth Summit Programme of Action, known as Agenda 21, welcomed discussions that had taken place during the session. Ms. Obaid emphasized the importance of culture when dealing with challenges in the developed and developing world, such as the HIV/AIDS pandemic, absolute poverty, growing inequality, and the lack of opportunities—especially for women—in many parts of the world to exercise basic economic, social and cultural rights. She reiterated Mr. Cohen’s statement about the importance of understanding how culture influenced the way population, development and the environment interacted. Ms. Obaid described the programmes of UNFPA, which emphasized reproductive health information and services for all including safe motherhood, family planning, and protection and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS. These programmes took into account each country’s development priorities and special needs, including social and cultural habits, she added.

MEMBERS

The Commission on Population and Development consists of 47 members (for 2001), elected by the Economic and Social Council for a period of four years on the basis of geographical distribution.

In 2001 the Member States are Algeria, Austria, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Burundi, Cameroon, Chile, China, Croatia, El Salvador, France, Germany, Ghana, Guinea, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Islamic Republic of Iran, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Lithuania, Malaysia, Malawi, Mexico, Netherlands, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, South Africa, Sweden, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States and Yemen

CONTACT

Joseph Chamie

Director

Population Division

Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA)

Room DC2-1950, United Nations

New York NY 10017, United States

telephone +1-212/963 3179

fax +1-212/963 2147

website (www.un.org/esa/population)

Mitra Vasisht

Chief

External Relations and Liaison Branch

United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)

220 East 42nd Street

New York NY 10017, United States

telephone +1-212/297 5016

fax +1-212/557 6416

e-mail <vasisht@unfpa.org>

website (www.unfpa.org)

This edition of NGLS Roundup was prepared by the United Nations Non-Governmental Liaison Service (NGLS). The NGLS Roundup is produced for NGOs and others interested in the institutions, policies and activities of the UN system and is not an official record.