ASIAN STATES SAY POPULATION POLICIES SHOULD BE PROTECTED FROM EFFECTS OF ECONOMIC CRISIS, IN COMMISSION ON POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT

23 March 1999

Press Release
POP/713

ASIAN STATES SAY POPULATION POLICIES SHOULD BE PROTECTED FROM EFFECTS OF ECONOMIC CRISIS, IN COMMISSION ON POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT

19990323 Concern Prompted by Drastic Reduction in Capital Inflows; Commission Also Considers Future Population Work Programme of Secretariat

Representatives of Asian countries this morning called on the international community to protect national population policies from the fallout of the economic crisis, as the Commission on Population and Development continued its deliberations on follow-up activities to the recommendations of the International Conference on Population and Development, held in Cairo in 1994.

The drastic reduction of capital inflows in Asian countries had sparked concern that the economic crisis would suppress the capacity of developing countries to generate population-related resources, the representative of the Philippines told the 47-member Commission. Developing countries needed the donor community to promote the goals of the Cairo Conference.

The Malaysian representative said that women were most affected by the economic crisis, and global efforts to assist developing countries should, therefore, focus on such issues as reproductive health and HIV/AIDS prevention. Also critical was the availability of resources to address issues of complex demography involving large numbers of young people and old. Developing nations faced the challenge of attaining a balance in population growth, to prevent rapid ageing and to maintain a significant labour force.

A representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) said that population ageing was accompanied by altered patterns of mortality and morbidity and shifts in the relative burdens of communicable and non- communicable diseases, stirring new needs for health information and care. Those changing patterns were closely mirrored by epidemiological change. The impact of those trends on health and mortality required vigilant monitoring, for which the organization was reaching out beyond traditional health sector boundaries.

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In its consideration of the future programme of work of the Secretariat in the field of population, the Commission heard statements by: the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA); the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC); the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP); the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) and the Statistical Division of the Secretariat.

The Director of the Population Division, Joseph Chamie, and the Deputy Director of the Technical and Policy Division of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Catherine Pierce, also spoke.

Statements were also made by the representatives of Turkey, Sweden, Republic of Korea, Canada and India, as well as the Holy See. A representative of the Eagle Forum, a non-governmental organization, also spoke.

The Commission will meet again at 10 a.m. Wednesday, 24 March, as the preparatory committee for the special session of the General Assembly for reviewing implementation of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development.

Commission Work Programme

The Commission on Population and Development met this morning to consider follow-up actions to the recommendations of the International Conference on Population and Development (Cairo, 1994), the world population situation, and its future programme of work. (For detailed background see Press Release POP/711 issued 22 March.)

Statements

CARLA ABOUZAHR, World Health Organization (WHO), said that changing patterns of population growth, structure and distribution were closely mirrored by epidemiological change. A major part of the work of the WHO was to monitor such trends and evaluate their impact on health and mortality. For example, population ageing was accompanied by altered patterns of mortality and morbidity, shifts in the relative burdens of communicable and non- communicable diseases, and new needs for health information and care. In order to draw attention to the health implications of ageing, World Health Day 1999 would be dedicated to "Heathy Ageing".

In the area of population health, she said that the analysis of sound sustained and locally relevant health data and their translation into evidence-based action was a prerequisite for the successful implementation of promotive, and preventative health care. An inescapable conclusion that emerged from the WHO analysis was that ill health disproportionately affected the poor. A major focus of the WHO's work would be to reduce the burden of excess mortality suffered by the poor and to focus on such conditions as malaria, tuberculosis and maternal mortality that impeded economic development. At the same time, the WHO was reaching out beyond traditional health sector boundaries to address threats to health that arose from economic crises, unhealthy environments and high risk behaviours. The WHO sought to address and act upon the social, economic, nutritional, environmental and cultural dimensions of health.

OFELIA M. TEMPLO (Philippines) commended the concise report on world population monitoring (document E/CN.9/1999/2), which brought to the forefront the important linkages between demography and economics. An assessment of her country's implementation of the goals of the Cairo Conference revealed that it had performed "relatively well", particularly in formulating policy and legislation, and embarking on institutional changes. Such progress was evident in the establishment of a national commission on the role of women and numerous gender-sensitive policies and institutions.

Of significant importance was the shift in the policy of the population management programme and in the country's approach to reproductive health issues, she said. That shift highlighted the important role played by civil society, which had led to viable partnerships with non-governmental organizations. Notwithstanding those changes however, the Government was

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fully aware that the Philippines had one of the fastest growing populations in Asia, as well as a very high fertility rate of 3.7 children per couple. The current population of 68.6 million would likely double in size in the next 50 years. The Philippines would thus rank twelfth among countries with the highest population growth rate.

She said that changes in child-bearing practices were needed, as the current situation was placing an increasing demand on education and jobs. In response, the newly elected Government had formulated a revised population programme, which emphasized assistance to couples in achieving those goals. It also focused, among other issues, on preventing teenage pregnancies.

She said that international migration was of special interest to the Philippines, which was a major "sending country" in Asia of overseas workers -- close to 1 million in 1995. Labour migration and the vulnerability of female migrant workers to exploitation and harassment, as well as their tendency to accept low status occupations, were among her country's priority concerns. Equally important for sending countries was the resulting issue of family disintegration. Issues of adolescent health and increasing levels of female migrant workers might be included in future discussions.

On a related topic, she said that the drastic reduction of capital inflows in some Asian countries had led to concern that the Asian economic crisis would have a significant impact on the capability of some developing countries to generate resources related to population activities. Hence, developing countries would continue to turn to the donor community for assistance in promoting the goals of the Cairo Conference, at least in the medium term.

RAJ KARIM (Malaysia) said that, while some world trends were positive, such as the lowering of population growth, the world needed to be aware of the problems developing countries were facing either in too low or too high fertility rates. Improved education, women's participation in the labour force, and the delaying of having children in marriage, were having a positive effect on population trends. Developing nations faced the challenge of how to attain a balance in population growth, in order to prevent a rapid ageing of their populations and to maintain a significant labour force.

Her country currently faced a situation in which it had a large number of young and older people, she said. Thus, there was a need to ensure future work for the young and a healthy, productive life for the elderly and it was critical that resources were available to address those priorities. The international community must ensure that progress in population policies was not hindered by the economic crisis. It was clear that women were most affected by that crisis. In that regard, international efforts to help developing countries should focus on basic issues, such as mortality, reproductive health and HIV/AIDS.

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SAMIRA YENER (Turkey) said her country was experiencing an important demographic transition. The period of rapid growth was over and population would reach low levels in the next century. A rapid decline in fertility had resulted in a reduction in infant mortality. Changes in age structure, however, would have social and economic implications. Turkey was once a country of emigration, but it was now a country of immigration, as well as a transit zone. The lack of qualitative data on migration hampered its understanding of migration as a factor in population trends.

She added that Turkey was becoming a primarily urban society, with 60 per cent of the population living in cities. Rapid urbanization had caused a number of problems, such as the insufficient provision of basic social services, which could not keep up with the demand. Further research was needed to study the relationship between demographic trends and poverty rates.

Response to Statements

JOSEPH CHAMIE, Director, Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, said that the Commission, as well as the Economic and Social Council and the General Assembly, had stressed coordination among the United Nations system. The statement made by the representative of the WHO had indicated the close collaboration between the Division and other agencies and programmes. It had benefited greatly, for example, from the WHO's contributions to the various monitoring reports, especially those dealing with reproductive health, health and mortality. It should be noted that the reports with the United Nations logo represented the contributions of regional commissions, agencies, the Bretton Woods institutions, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), and countless other actors.

He said that the international migration issue, raised by the representative of the Philippines, was on the agenda of the fifty-fourth session of the General Assembly. Just last week, he had solicited the views of Member States on that issue, at the Assembly's request. The Division would prepare a report for the Assembly based on that information.

The challenges relating to population growth, structure and distribution were formidable, he said. As stressed in the reports before the Commission, many issues were still pending. The ageing issue, for example, was not an issue for developed countries, but for all countries. The changing demography would have enormous impact on societies globally, and would feature prominently at the preparatory committee in coming days.

Consideration of Future Work Programme

Mr. CHAMIE, Director, Population Division, said that the proposed work programme for the Secretariat in the field of population activities still had

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to be reviewed, including by the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary), and approved by the General Assembly at its fifty-fourth session.

He said the proposal had been designed to take into account the follow-up activities to the Cairo Conference, carry out sophisticated research at the global level, and provide substantial support for technical cooperation. The discussion of the work programme had benefited greatly from the work of regional commissions, funds, agencies and programmes.

He said that since the establishment of the Population Division 53 years ago, it had done its best to respond to the needs of the Commission in a scientific, comprehensive and balanced manner. It was apolitical and did not have an advocacy role for a particular ideology, policy or programme. Its perspective was scientific and global. It worked closely with colleagues from the regional commissions, who focused in more detail on their respective regional concerns. Its research often formed the underlying foundations for the numerous reports, conferences and databases prepared by others working in the United Nations system, private sector and non-governmental organizations.

He said that following the tradition of the Division's establishment in the early years, all of its work must continue to be objective, comprehensive, accurate and relevant, requiring careful analysis by trained professionals. The Division had benefited greatly from the comments of the Commission. The proposal for the next two years of work fell into six major areas which included undertaking studies of such topics as fertility, contraception, mortality, migration, urbanization, age structure, population policies and population and development.

The Division also prepared world estimates and projections for population, he went on. It was in the process of issuing publications, working papers, wall charts and data sets and had already begun the year 2000 revision of world population estimates. Another major area of its work dealt with appraising population policies, formalized after the 1974 population conference in Bucharest. In addition to preparing the monitoring reports, the Division was responsible for preparing reviews of progress. Another area concerned organization of symposiums and follow-up activities. Most recently, it had collaborated with UNAIDS on the demographic impact of the disease.

The Population Information Network -- POPIN -- was perhaps one of the most exciting areas in which the Division was involved, he went on. The Division had been assisting developing countries and those with economies in transition to set up their own Web sites. The challenge was in making those available worldwide. Work was under way in India with regard to the Internet. The Indian Government had launched a programme to link all of its district health offices by the end of the current year. He would propose to the Commission a population Internet initiative, aimed at ensuring Internet access for all population professionals and institutions no later than the end

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of 2001. Ensuring universal access to the Internet was an urgent and worthy goal.

Statements on Future Work of Secretariat

BERTIL EGERO (Sweden) said the Population Division had made great achievements in the methodology of population analysis, and made important contributions to the Cairo Conference process. There were some factors, however, that could be considered in future work. It should be kept in mind that AIDS was just one of the fatal diseases that took a toll on population trends -- undernutrition and such diseases as malaria were also responsible for many deaths throughout the world. Also, long-term projections of mortality rates would be helpful in creating national population policies. The Commission should debate the pros and cons of the mortality projections at its next session.

OH YOUNG JU (Republic of Korea) said it was encouraging to see the improvements in data coverage by the Division and the special attention it had paid to HIV/AIDS to promote awareness of such issues. Her delegation hoped to see even more useful information in the future that was focused on helping nations develop population policies. There should also be more attempts to link the research of the Division to the work of other United Nations bodies and follow-up efforts to major the global conferences.

ELIZABETH CAPAZZI, Eagle Forum, said the use of the Internet and databases for population information dissemination would be a great advance. Non-governmental organizations and others had a crucial interest in that data and they should also have access to that information.

DANIELE TESTELIN (Canada) said the Division's work was especially helpful for people working in the field. The Division should consider systemizing the link with other United Nations organizations. Also, many countries were faced with limitations in implementing their population policies and the Division could provide greater policy guidance in that regard.

JAMES T. McHUGH, of the Holy See, said there was a continuing pattern where populations were getting older as well as a decline in birth rates. That situation might result in fewer people in the work force and that might lead to a decline in resources for many countries. Development assistance should be given to the developing countries to carry out further population analysis.

PRAVIN VISARIA (India) said available documentation on population trends should be placed on the Internet and the necessary resources should be made available for that activity. The Population Division should also consider placing its reports on a CD-ROM, for those without access to the Internet.

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In response to comments, Mr. CHAMIE said that predicting mortality patterns in the future was an extremely important issue and there had been much discussions in that regard. However, there was a need to reduce the number of variants and assumptions in making mortality projections. Most policy makers needed the most reasonable estimate, not three or four. That was a problem that was being discussed. Also, one could not assume that mortality would continue to move in a single direction -- there was no guarantee that mortality would automatically go down in the future. Setbacks, such as malaria and AIDS, could cause stagnation in the lowering of mortality rates.

PAULINA MAKINWA-ADEBUSOYE, Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), said that African policy makers were focusing on the synergistic effects of three trends: rising population growth; declining agricultural product; and increasing degradation of the African environment. In that respect, the Commission had called for urgent attention to the negative impact of the combined effects of those three trends. For that purpose, it had prepared a computer-simulated model for use as an advocacy tool aimed at changing population policies in Member States.

She said the model would, among other things, demonstrate the impact of different policy options on achieving food security. It was a major planning tool for sustaining development. Prototypes of the model existed in Burkina Faso, Madagascar and Zambia, and plans were under way to develop additional prototypes for four more African countries. It had already been introduced in the training programmes of some regional population and development institutions.

Continuing, she said that in 1998 the Secretariat, through its five subregional development centres, had also organized seminars on the interrelationships between population, agriculture and the environment. To monitor implementation of the Cairo Conference, the Secretariat had also organized activities and meetings at which Member States exchanged information on their experiences, particularly on policy changes that had occurred in the last five years, as well as constraints encountered and successes achieved. It also administered a follow-up questionnaire to all Member States. The responses of 41 countries, together with the subregional reports provided by the UNFPA, were incorporated into a report of African experiences.

DANIEL BLANCHARD, Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), spoke on the activities of the Latin American and Caribbean Demographic Centre, which assists ECLAC in its work on population. He said the Centre had been closely monitoring trends in the rapid ageing process taking place in its region. Analytical studies on the socio-economic conditions of the elderly were being prepared for some countries of the region, paying special attention to the problems of social vulnerability. Also, to contribute to the links between population and development in its region, the Centre was preparing two conceptual reports. The first dealt with

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interactions between population dynamics and sustained economic growth. The second report would explore the main challenges posed by current demographic trends to social equality and sustainability.

NIBHON DEBAVALYA, Director, Population and Rural and Urban Development Division of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), said that the ESCAP secretariat had accomplished a variety of population and development activities in the past year. In the area of population research, its work had been focused on: strengthening evaluation systems for measuring progress in reproductive health and family planning programmes; strengthening policy analysis and research on female migration, employment, family formation and poverty; and implications of ageing for Asian families and the elderly.

Under its programme of work, he said ESCAP had assisted developing countries in the region by organizing training workshops, including on information technology for population information professionals in the POPIN network. It also held a policy seminar on gender dimensions of population and development in South-East Asia, as well as a regional seminar on the family and the elderly. Upcoming events included a regional training workshop on improving national capacity for evaluating reproductive health and family planning programmes, and another training workshop exclusively for Pacific island countries and territories.

In July, ESCAP would convene a regional seminar on strengthening evaluation systems for measuring the programme of reproductive health and family planning programmes, he went on. In August, it would hold a training workshop on the repackaging of population data in electronic form, and in September the Secretariat would conduct a training workshop on interpreting population data for assessing the gender dimensions of population and development. The ESCAP continued to support population information centres in many regional countries, as part of the Asia-Pacific Population Information Network (Asia-Pacific POPIN). That effort was aimed at enabling those developing countries to become self-reliant in their information gathering, analysis, processing and disseminating capabilities.

AKIL AKIL, Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), said its activities in the area of population included assisting in monitoring population trends and follow-up to the Cairo Conference Plan of Action at the national and regional levels. So far, there were population data sheets on 10 of the 13 ESCWA States. It also recently held a workshop on population and sustainable development. Many efforts were directed towards facilitating the implementation of the goals of the four major global conferences, including Cairo. In that regard, ESCWA held a conference to review and evaluate achievements in implementing the Cairo Plan of Action. At that conference, States adopted a list of actions intended to further the Cairo process. The ESCWA would continue to work on the challenges of sustainable development,

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with the objective of enhancing capacities in population analysis and migration.

SAM SUHARTO, Chief of the Demographic and Social Statistics Branch of the United Nations Statistics Division, said that when the thirtieth session of the Statistical Commission met earlier this month, it had before it a progress report of the Secretary-General describing the Secretariat's activities in demographic statistics, including methodological work in the area of the year 2000 round of population and housing censuses, civil registration and vital statistics, and other demographic data concerning human settlements, international migration, and gender statistics.

He said that the Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing Censuses: Revision 1 was published in English in May 1998 and Chinese in March and the translated versions were in press in Arabic, French, Russian and Spanish. To supplement that publication, the Division, in collaboration with the UNFPA, was preparing three handbooks as additions to the series of Handbooks of Population and Housing Censuses. Translation into all official languages was planned. The four existing handbooks are: geographic information systems and digital mapping for census activities; population and housing census editing; census management; and a forthcoming guide for the collection of economic characteristics in population censuses. In addition, the Division was planning to develop a handbook on fertility and mortality data collection.

In partnership with the UNFPA, he said the Division was undertaking interregional and regional training to assist countries in conducting population and housing census in the 2000 census decade. Translation and publication in all official languages were under way for Recommendations on Statistics of International Migration. In addition, the Division revised the Principles and Recommendations for a Vital Statistics System, which was last issued in 1973. The current draft incorporated the latest developments in concepts, definitions, classifications, coding systems, and newly available technology for storage, retrieval and data processing of vital records and statistics.

Also in conjunction with the UNFPA, five handbooks to accelerate the improvement of civil registration and vital statistics had been submitted for publication, he went on. Further, the second phase of a project to improve civil registration and vital statistics was being implemented. The project's main activities included the development of a training manual and a training seminar for improving vital statistics and assisting countries in implementing the newly revised Principles and Recommendations for a Vital Statistics System.

He said the Division, together with the Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat), was preparing the next edition of the Compendium of Human Settlements Statistics. Work was expected to be completed in 2000. Country

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tables from The World's Women 1995: Trends and Statistics, updated yearly, were available on the Division's Web site. A second Web site, called "Social Indicators", updated quarterly, disseminated a set of 26 social indicators by sex and covered 206 countries and areas.

The Division also issued a handbook for producing statistical reports on women and men, he said. It served as an operational guide for national statistical offices and gender programmes in the compilation of gender statistics and their dissemination in a non-technical format. Extensive distribution in each of the United Nations languages was being undertaken by the following agencies which had supported preparation of the publication: the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), UNICEF, UNFPA, the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP).

CATHERINE PIERCE, Deputy Director of the Technical and Policy Division of the UNFPA, said the presentations by regional commissions underscored the normative and operational links in the United Nations system. The regional commissions have cooperated closely with the UNFPA in a number of areas, paying particular attention to the year 2000 censuses. The UNFPA would continue to support censuses and other data collecting systems regionally and nationally. It sought to build up country capacity for population and development initiatives.

On the issue of financial flows, she said that donor and recipient countries should continue to meet the Cairo commitments in regard to the flow of resources for population activities. There was a need, however, to gain greater information on the flow of financial resources and the UNFPA was willing to assist countries in making that information available.

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