Population

Speakers addressed the challenges of coping with refugee and migration flows and their impact on a country’s demographic makeup, as the Commission on Population and Development continued its annual session today.

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres:

Timely investment could turn the challenge of dealing with an ageing population in developed countries and a youth surge in Africa into unprecedented opportunity for growth, the Commission on Population and Development heard today as it continued its annual session.

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks, delivered by Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti, Chef de Cabinet, at the opening of the fiftieth session of the Commission on Population and Development, in New York today:

The world had witnessed nothing short of a demographic revolution since 1947, bringing with it both challenges and opportunities for sustainable development, speakers said today, as the Commission on Population and Development opened its fiftieth session.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today announced the appointment of Natalia Kanem of Panama as Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Executive Director (Programme) of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).  She succeeds Kate Gilmore of Australia, to whom the Secretary-General is grateful for her dedicated service and commitment to the Organization.

After several days of intense negotiations, the Commission on Population and Development adopted two draft resolutions on strengthening the demographic evidence base and on the proposed theme for 2017, closing its forty-ninth session today.

The Commission on Population and Development adopted today a draft decision that would guide its future efforts through the post-2015 era, as the body continued a general debate on agenda items that included strengthening the demographic evidence base for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and streamlining its working methods.

Bold steps were needed to build capacities, introduce innovative technologies and reconfigure national statistics systems so developing countries could shape the policies required to trigger sustainable development gains, stressed speakers as the Commission on Population and Development continued its forty-ninth session today.

Closing data gaps and using new technologies were among the necessary steps to ensuring the successful achievement of all 17 of the Sustainable Development Goals, speakers said today as the Commission on Population and Development continued its general debate and held an interactive discussion with statistics experts.