World Summit on Sustainable Development Department of Public Information - News and Media Services Division - New York
	Johannesburg, South Africa 26 August-4 September 2002	31 August 2002

PRESS CONFERENCE BY PANEL ON POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT   If the faces and voices of people who were suffering were here at the Summit, negotiators would not be using so many square brackets on decisions that affected children, mothers and fathers, and the retired and elderly, the Coordinator of the Global Science Panel on Population and Environment said today at a Summit press conference. The Panel is a joint initiative of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population and the United Nations University. Formed in 2001, it prepared a comprehensive scientific assessment of the role of population in sustainable development strategies, aimed at producing a science-based policy statement for the Summit. At the press conference, sponsored by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and United Nations University, were Mahendra Shah, panel coordinator; Hans van Ginkel, Rector, United Nations University and President, International Association of Universities; and Mari Simonen, Director, Technical Support Division, UNFPA. Opening the conference, Mr. Von Ginkel said that when the group was formed, it was convinced that population would be a major topic on the Summit's agenda, but after the conclusion of preparations, it was clear that would not be the case. So, the panel launched an awareness campaign on the importance of population in sustainable development. Clearly, the size and distribution of population played a major role in sustainable development questions, particularly at the local, regional and national levels. Population density had a major and direct impact on quality of life, as seen in places where refugees were concentrated. He said he was convinced that sustainable development had to take into account population. "The road from Rio to Johannesburg passed through Cairo," he said, referring to the global population conference there in 1994. Ms. Simone agreed that the integrated approached on population and development accepted at Cairo was the one that worked on the ground for many programmes in the 140 countries with which she was collaborating. Globally, it was necessary to put the weight of an independent scientific panel behind the need to link the issues of population and environmental and sustainable development. She stressed the important role of women in those issues. They were key to the success of population and reproductive health programmes, environmental interventions and sustainable development. Women in the communities were the ones most affected by natural resources depletion and they held the key to the success of interventions aimed at sustaining the family and community, Mr. Von Ginkel added. The world would not succeed in improving human well-being and preserving quality of life and the environment unless people were put at the core of efforts to achieve sustainable development. That would have multiple benefits for individuals, society and their sustainable relationship with the environment. Today's world was one of unprecedented demographic change and diversity. More than one-fifth of the global population lived in poverty, hunger and ill health, without access to clean water and a crying unmet need for education. It was not possible to solve one of those problems without considering the others. Being released today, the report documented some of the goals in the areas of population, education, health poverty and hunger, he said. At the current rate of progress, it would take 60 years to reduce hunger by 50 per cent. The Millennium Development Goals had time-bound targets, but a concrete and targeted approach was needed to meet those in 2015. Thus, a local-level targeted approach should be adopted, which integrated population demographics. Also critical was integrating the notion of vulnerable populations, with a priority focus on women, children and the elderly. Perhaps a time-bound gender equality target should also be considered. Responding to a question about the relationship between population trends and HIV/AIDS, Mr. Shah said a separate report would be issued on that topic. Ms. Simonen added that AIDS was an integral part of reproductive health programmes at the community and local levels. Asked to comment on China's population policy, Mr. Shah said that looking at that country's demographic and economic changes over the last 20 to 30 years should be from all perspectives, including fertility declines, ageing and social security. He referred the correspondent to the section on fertility in the Panel's report. Asked why was population was left off the agenda here and who bore the responsibility for having influenced that decision, Mr. Shah said the other name for the Johannesburg Summit was "Rio plus 10". A look back at those documents showed that there was one chapter on population and demography. Throughout the other 36 chapters, references were made to the linkage to population. Here at the Summit, which was supposed to be about implementation actions, the issue of population had appeared in two or three paragraphs, most often in relation to reproductive health, and was not integrated into the Millennium Development Goals. Pressed about which countries or entities were responsible for that, he said that process was government-driven. In the first Preparatory Committee session leading to this conference, the issue of population was not there at all. Ms. Simonen added that there had been some "going back" recently on issues of sexual and reproductive health, gender equality and population, despite the fact that a 20-year old international agreement had existed on that. There were forces at play that did not like the agenda. The UNFPA and others had recently come under attack. Press Conferences Summit News