Population An overview

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PopulationAn overview
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Interact Worldwide

• Interact Worldwide believes in the fundamental
  right of all human beings to access quality
  sexual and reproductive health services. We
  believe that unless people have access to these
  services they will never be able to lift
  themselves out of poverty. As such, we provide
  sexual and reproductive health services in some
  of the worlds poorest communities and campaign
  internationally for the right of all people to
  these services

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How Does Population Change?

• Increases when births increase and / or deaths
  decrease
• Decreases when births decrease and / or deaths
  increase
• Remains stable when births and deaths are equal
  (a replacement fertility rate of 2.1)

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Fertility Rates Worldwide

• UK 1.7
• Europe 1.4
• North America 2.1
• Latin America 2.7
• Asia 2.6
• Asia (excl China) 3.1
• Africa 5.2

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Why are Fertility Rates High?

• High infant mortality
• Lack of welfare state
• Lack of access to education
• Low status of women / Son preference
• Early marriage
• Agricultural dependency
• Culture and religion
• Limited or no access to contraception

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Effects of High Fertility Rates

• Maternal Mortality / Disability
• Infant Mortality
• Competing priorities for family resources
• Inter-generational consequences
• Lack of female participation in society
• Governments unable to meet demand for services

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Key Events in Population History

• 1968 Conference on Human Rights Teheran
• 1974 World Population Conference Bucharest
• 1975 First World Conference on Women Mexico
  City
• 1984 Conference on Population Mexico City

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ICPD Cairo 1994

• Linked population poverty
• New concept of reproductive health
• Stronger on adolescents
• Cairo Programme of Action
• Committed governments financially

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Why was ICPD so important?In 1 Hour Worldwide

• 22,800 women newly pregnant
• 11,400 of these pregnancies are unplanned
• 2400 unsafe abortions, mainly in young girls
• 9 girls will die as a result of unsafe abortion
• 700 women will be disabled by pregnancy
  complications
• 60 women will die from these complications
• 12,500 15-24 yr olds will contract an STI
• 300 of these STIs will be HIV
• 350 people will die from AIDS

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Population Policies

• China
• One Child Policy in place since 1979
• Limits urban couples to one child (two if both
  parents are only children) and allows rural
  couples two if the first daughter is a girl
• Criticised for coercive and heavy handed nature
• Concerns about the girl child census data shows
  a lack of females
• Slight re orientation since the 1994
  International Conference on Population and
  Development
• UNFPA working in China to demonstrate voluntary
  and rights based approaches to family planning

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India

• Pre ICPD
• One of first developing countries to adopt
  population policies over 50 years ago
• Over emphasis on demographic targets and
  contraceptive acceptance rates
• Under Sanjay Gandhi more coercive methods pursued
• Programmes ignored wider needs of women and
  coercive practices led to distrust of family
  planning
• Pressure on health workers to meet targets led to
  the falsifying of reported figures

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India

• Post ICPD
• Elimination of nationally mandated targets
• New Target Free Approach
• Trialled in Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu
• Contraceptive usage initially declined (largely
  due to previously inflated figures) before
  increasing again
• Broader range of contraceptives now promoted with
  less pressure to accept sterilisation