UNITED NATIONS POPULATION INFORMATION NETWORK (POPIN) UN Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, with support from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA)

European Agenda for World Population

European Agenda for Action on World Population



 A new European Agenda for Action on World Population was adopted by 

European politicians at a conference in London held 31 January to 1 February 

1992. The Conference was organized by the British All-Party Parliamentary 

Group on Population and Development in cooperation with the Europe Regional 

Bureau of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) and the 

United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).



Speakers at the Conference included Dr. Halfdan Mahler, Secretary-General, 

IPPF; Dr. Fred Sai, President, IPPF; Dr. Nafis Sadik, Executive Director, 

UNFPA, and Secretary-General, International Conference on Population and 

Development, 1994; Sir Charles Morrison, Chairman, All-Party Parliamentary 

Group on Population and Development; and Mr. Joseph Wheeler, Director, 

Programme Integration for the United Nations Conference on Environment and 

Development (UNCED).



The aim of the Conference was to provide an opportunity for European 

parliamentarians to clarify issues and approaches to UNCED and to the 

International Conference on Population and Development, 1994 (ICPD). The 

Conference also gave them a chance to suggest ways of increasing awareness 

and understanding of population issues, with particular emphasis on the how 

to respond to the needs of the developing world. 



The participants of the Conference, representing parliamentarians from 20 

European countries and the European Parliament, drew up a "European Agenda 

for Action on World Population. The Agenda calls for strong new initiatives 

that will be needed at national, regional, and international levels in order 

to make family planning universally available before the end of the decade.



European members of parliaments were urged to persuade their Governments to 

increase bilateral and multilateral development assistance to overseas 

family planning programmes through a variety of channels such as UNFPA, IPPF 

and other NGOs working in the population field. The overall aim is to 

establish an annual assistance level of $ 4 billion by the year 2000. 

Parliamentarians were also called upon to review current development 

policies of their Governments and to establish parliamentary population 

groups where they do not already exist. Population policies and family 

planning programmes should be integrated into the overall sustainable 

development strategy, the Agenda says.



Parliamentarians were also encouraged to overcome existing obstacles in 

realizing universal access to family planning and to contraceptive 

availability in order to reduce the number of abortions worldwide, and to 

respond to the public health consequences of unsafe abortions. The agenda 

also recommends the establishment of a Global Commission on Population to 

gather evidence from experts and parliamentarians in anticipation of the 

International Conference on Population and Development, 1994.