PROTECTING THE FUTURE
St. Louis Post Dispatch- August 1999 - Editorial

Two women sit on a bench in a family-planning clinic in a crowded slum of Amman, Jordan. At first glance, they couldn't be more different. One, prim and veiled, sits stiffly while her youngest son explores every nook and cranny in the waiting room. The mother of six children, she uses birth control to delay a seventh. The other woman, in makeup and blue jeans, cradles her infant in her arms. She used family planning to space her first and second children and is using it again to delay a third.

One modern, one traditional, but both have something fundamental in common. They and their husbands believe that their lives, and the lives of their children, are better and happier when they decide when to have children.

These women are far, from the power centers of the world, but they are in the front lines of a global revolution. A demographic revolution as Third World nations recognize that unfettered population growth exhausts human and natural resources and dooms nations to poverty and underdevelopment. And, however begrudgingly and however slowly, a feminist revolution links improvement in women's lives access to education, economic opportunity and family planning - with smaller families and slower population growth.

Even with scientific advances, like biotechnology, unchecked population growth is an environmental disaster in waiting. Rainforests, miracles of biodiversity, are chopped down to provide inadequate farmland. Small family plots are over-cultivated into barrenness. Water supplies are stretched thin. The Sahara spreads.

Compared to many Third World countries, Jordan, a desert country of 4.6 million has made real progress. Over 20 years, the fertility rate, for example, has dropped from 7.4 births a woman to the albeit still high 4.4. Its infant and maternal mortality rate have also declined although they, too, remain disturbingly high. While it would be move to discount the considerable obstacles that continue to litter the path, the overall trend is steadily downward.

What lessons does Jordan's experience teach? The most valuable are:

Leadership

In addition to government support of family planning, both Queen Noor and Princess Basma, the wire and sister of the late King Hussein, are long-time patrons of high-profile foundations promoting family planning and women's empowerment. Their involvement helps give these programs and their goals legitimacy and cachet.

Public-private partnerships

Non-governmental organizations have the flexibility and freedom to experiment with programs and approaches that financially strapped governments don't. They are often better situated to win the trust and participation of ordinary people.

Grass-roots organizing and low-tech solutions

To reach ordinary women about family planning and other service, many of these programs rely on training peers from the community to spread the word. It's touching to see these women, often shy and insecure, gain confidence, interpersonal skills and self-respect as they gain the respect and appreciation of their neighbors. Their teaching aids aren't very sophisticated: clipboards and drawings.

Holistic approach

Family planning, education and economic opportunity are inextricably connected. In rural areas, puppet shows teach villagers that girls deserve to go to school and micro-finance programs fund women's herbal gardens. In small towns, sewing cooperatives provide women with income and a chance to for a better future. It's part of building a world where women see themselves as more than mother.

On Oct. 12, the world's population is expected to hit 6 billion people. It is in many ways an occasion to celebrate because it reflects the fact, as Dr. Nafis Sadik, executive director or the United Nations Population Fund, observed that "people today live longer and healthier lives than any generation in history."

But it is also a daunting challenge. Population growth is both explosive and exponential. Imagine, the world's population did not hit 1 billion until 1804. But, 123 years later, in 1927, it reached 2 billion. By 1960, only 33 years later, it hit 3 billion. In 1974, it reached 4 billion; in 1987, 5 billion. Now we're on course for 6 billion.

The numbers are staggering, but they can be expressed in human terms. "Today," said Dr. Sadik, "there are over a billion young people between 15 and 24 years of age. Their decisions about the size and spacing of their families will determine how many people will be on the planet by 2050 and beyond. Their decisions will also help determine how they live in poverty or prosperity, on a green and healthy planet or in a world devastated by human activities.

At stake are people -who need food and water, a home, an education, a job, a life where dreams and hopes are not trampled at an early age -and a world that's bountiful but not infinite.


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