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

Mexico to Host Conference

Mexico City To Host Final Regional Conference



Once the most populated city in the world when it hosted the 1984 

International Conference on Population, Mexico City will now greet regional 

leaders for the fifth regional conference, to be held 29 April 4 May, 1993, 

in preparation for the 1994 International Conference on Population and 

Development.



A future of mega-cities



The selection of Mexico City for this last regional conference provides 

useful insights into what the future may hold for the region, if present 

trends continue into the next century. According to U.N. estimates, Latin 

America could be home to not one, but four of the 10 largest cities in the 

world by 2010, namely Mexico City, Sao Paolo, Buenos Aires and Rio de 

Janeiro. Though the Tokyo Yokohama conurbation currently ranks first on 

world urban population charts - with 26 million, the average annual 

population growth of Mexico and Sao Paolo, between 1985 and 1990, was four 

times faster. The same outcome is expected to occur between 1995 and 2000.



Latin America and Caribbean countries already have the highest proportion of 

urban dwellers in the world - more than 70% of their total population, said 

a U.N. report. This high urban concentration of national populations, 

resulting from relatively high growth rates and massive migration from the 

countryside, has had a dramatic impact on the environment and the quality of 

life of a great number of people in the region. These are fundamental 

problems which will be addressed at the Mexico Conference.



Internal disparities



According to a U.N. report prepared for the Conference in Mexico, population 

dynamics between countries as well as within countries reflect a very mixed 

image of that shown by regional average figures. Population growth rates in 

the 1980s dropped to a 2% average for the overall region, while per country 

averages varied from 1% to over 3% during the same period. A closer look at 

the fertility rates of different social strata within countries, points to 

an even more distorted pattern from those shown by regional figures. Ms. 

Liliana Frieiro, Officer-in-Charge of UNFPA's Latin American and Caribbean 

Division explains. "Rural people in some Central American countries have 

average fertility rates of 7.6 children per woman, while urban people in the 

same countries, have less than half that number, with 2.8 children".



This example underscores the reality of perpetual poverty for a substantial 

segment of certain national populations and emphasizes the close 

inter-linkages between the level of economic development and the safeguard 

of adequate standards of living for increasing numbers of people. As a U.N. 

report stated "the predominance of high fertility reproductive patterns in 

poor stratum in itself promotes the transmission of poverty from generation 

to generation". Overcoming these inequities in the broadest, socio-economic 

sense, the report adds, will require the facilitation of individual 

decisions on reproductive patterns". In this respect, the role of the State 

must be emphasized in its capacity to influence and orient national social 

policies to the promotion of this aim.



High incidence of maternal mortality is another major problem affecting the 

region. According to the Pan- American Health Organization (PAHO), 50% of 

maternal deaths in many of these countries can be accounted for as a result 

of unsafe abortions. This high incidence of abortions clearly indicates the 

unmet demand for family planning in the region," Ms. Frieiro said. It is 

likely to constitute a major source for concern when countries meet in 

Mexico City.



The Mexico City Conference will address the principal population and 

development issues affecting the Latin American and Caribbean region. 

jointly organized by the U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America and the 

Caribbean (ECLAC) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the Mexico 

Conference will concentrate on the following themes:



I) population growth, structure and distribution in Latin America and the 

Caribbean: the 	socio-economic trends and implications; 

2) population dynamics and development in the Caribbean sub region; 

3) population policy and programmes; 

4) population growth and distribution: their relation to development and the 

environment; 5 j women and population dynamics; and 

6) family planning, health and family well-being.



The purpose of the Conference is to produce a set of operational 

recommendations that will effectively deal with these issues. A final 

document is expected to be adopted at the final session of the Ministerial 

Section of the Conference on 4 May, which will be available to all Prepcom 

11 participants in both English and Spanish.