| Population
and Development: Changing Policies When UNFPA was started in 1969,
many countries lacked population policies. Many developing countries, and most
least-developed ones, had never conducted a census. Lacking basic information, national
development strategies rarely took into account the impacts of population growth,
location, movements (within the country or across borders) and age structure.
As data became available, many governments realized their populations were growing
faster than expected, hampering social and economic development. In every region, requests
increased for assistance to improve the availability of information and services for
family planning and maternal and child health. Policy development, research, institutional
support, training and basic data collection continued to be important components of
population assistance, but a growing share of investment was dedicated to service
delivery.
Increased availability of family planning information and services met a growing demand
for smaller and healthier families and spurred a near four-fold increase since 1969 in the
proportion of couples using contraception. During the same period, access to basic health
services also increased and in less-developed regions life expectancy at birth increased
by over 10 years. Annual gross domestic product per capita increased in the less-developed
regions as a whole, but has lagged in the least-developed countries.
Periodic inquiries by the United Nations Population Division have shown a growing
number of developing countries initiating actions in the areas of fertility and mortality
reduction, and increasing policy interest in migration and population age structure.
The ICPD Programme of Action reconfirmed the vital role of population in social
development strategies, and stressed the dynamic relationships among population, social
and economic development, poverty alleviation, the quality of the environment, and the
empowerment of women.
Increased recognition of the role of population within development has led nearly half
of all developing countries to review their policies since 1994. More than a third have
updated their population policies to be consistent with ICPD objectives or have integrated
factors such as the quality of health care, gender equality and the improvement of
demographic information systems into long-term development plans.
In Africa, many countries have focused their reviews on broad population and
development issues, including poverty alleviation and human resource development. In Asia
and the Pacific, more countries have focused on reproductive health and mortality.2 Fewer
countries in Latin America have engaged in policy reviews but those that have, including
Mexico, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Panama, and Trinidad and Tobago, have addressed
local concerns like population distribution and the needs of underserved young and old
populations.
Two thirds of all countries have introduced policy or legislative measures to promote
gender equality and equity and women’s empowerment. Nearly all countries in Latin
America have introduced policy 18 measures, legislation or institutional changes to
protect women’s rights; nearly half have national policy or action plans. More than
half the Asian countries and a number of African countries (including Botswana, Burundi,
Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia) have acted to protect women’s
rights in areas such as inheritance, property and employment.
Many countries have strengthened laws and policies to combat gender-based violence
including rape, incest, domestic violence and female genital mutilation. Fifteen African
States have banned FGM, including Senegal, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and
Togo.
Nearly two thirds of Latin America and the Caribbean countries but fewer than half of
all countries have acted to increase men’s responsibility for their sexual and
reproductive behaviour and their social and family roles, through measures such as
employment legislation and child-support laws.
Sixty-seven countries have made policy
changes affirming
a commitment to reproductive health and rights.
Sixty-seven countries have made policy changes affirming a commitment to reproductive
rights and reproductive health. Over 40 have incorporated this perspective in the
provision of health services. Many countries have acted to improve the quality of
reproductive health services (see Chapter 3). Nearly half the countries in the world have
taken new measures to address adolescent reproductive health needs, often in collaboration
with NGOs and the private sector.
Policy evaluations are now undertaken with a wider variety of inputs than previously.
During the 1970s and 1980s many countries developed wide-ranging population and
development policies but specified action plans primarily in maternal and child health and
family planning. Population sections of national development plans have implications for
policies in many areas including employment, education, health, food security,
environmental protection, women’s social participation, community action and local
administration. Legal and policy changes in these diverse areas will be more successful if
those with a stake in the policy reviews have accurate, timely information on population
trends and their implications.
At the same time, the ongoing policy re-evaluations are taking place in a dramatically
changing social and political environment. Most developing countries have undertaken
economic reforms aimed at liberalizing domestic and global economic relations. The key
reforms have been the disinvestment of the State from the production sector, the adoption
of non-expansionist monetary and fiscal policies, the reduction of state administration,
trade liberalization and the deregulation of the labour market. In this new environment,
countries and firms have to become more efficient and competitive. There is a danger that
smaller and poorer economies will become even more marginalized.
Domestic economic reforms and globalization have affected population migration and
population redistribution, particularly through accelerating urbanization trends. These
population changes in turn impact on poverty, health, housing and environmental factors,
with implications for population policies and development strategies.
Such changes have affected the role of national planning institutions. Increased
reliance on the private sector for development activities and decentralization of
authority and administration make it imperative that there be wider access to
policy-relevant demographic information and analyses. Public institutions have an
important role to play in providing the information needed to develop and sustain
competitive economic systems. Policy priorities have been an important focus of the
five-year review of implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action. Expert round tables,
technical meetings and regional population and development conferences have addressed
population and economic development, international migration, civil society, reproductive
health and rights, and population ageing.
BOX
7
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South-east Asian Crisis May Erase
Development Progress
The South-east Asian economic crisis that began in 1997 provides a grim warning that
global financial turmoil can wipe out developmental gains due to social-sector investment.
For almost three decades, the region experienced stunning economic growth accompanied
by massive investments in health and education that were widely credited with contributing
to smaller family size, higher living standards and improvements in women’s status.
The crisis in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand has increased poverty
and unemployment, lowered educational participation, and reduced funding for social
programmes, including population and reproductive health programmes. Preliminary evidence
suggests that the region’s remarkable development gains of the past three decades are
being reversed as a result — and that women and children are suffering the most.
The crisis has significantly increased school dropout rates throughout the region.
Unemployment has risen sharply, particularly in Indonesia, and disproportionately in the
sectors in which women work. Urban job losses have reversed traditional rural-urban
migration patterns and created a new class of urban poor.
Falling real incomes and rising prices of food and other basic commodities have
combined to produce increased incidence of malnutrition in babies and young children in
parts of Indonesia.
The crisis has exacerbated the harsh realities of women’s lives and made gender
equality and equity a more distant goal. Rising poverty has increased pressure on women to
enter the commercial sex industry; and because of a lack of accessible services, these new
recruits are poorly equipped to protect themselves from sexually transmitted diseases
including HIV/AIDS.
Reproductive health programmes continue to suffer as budgetary priority is given to
addressing hunger, rising poverty, unemployment and social disruption. Preliminary
evidence suggests unsafe abortions have increased, while opportunities for post-abortion
counselling in family planning are limited. There have been cutbacks in health promotion
and medical service activities, including HIV/AIDS and STD prevention and treatment
programmes. The problem of inadequate access to reproductive health services for
adolescents, especially girls, has intensified.
Source: UNFPA. 1999. South-east Asian Populations in Crisis: Challenges to the
Implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action. New York: UNFPA. |
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