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

Population-Planning Link requires fresh approach

"ICPD 94"

November-December 1993

Number 10



Newsletter of the International Conference on Population and

Development, Cairo, Egypt, 5-13 September 1994





POPULATION-PLANNING LINK REQUIRES A FRESH APPROACH, ROUND TABLE

PARTICIPANTS AGREE



     Seeking to better define the phrase "integration of population

into development", the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and

the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the

Pacific (ESCAP) jointly convened a round-table meeting in Bangkok,

Thailand, from 17-19 November. The round table was one of several

organized prior to ICPD to enrich the dialogue on critical issues

to be discussed in Cairo.



     The Round Table on Population and Development Strategies was

opened by Mr. Rafeeuddin Ahmed, Executive Secretary of ESCAP, and

Mr. Jyoti Shankar Singh, ICPD Executive Coordinator and Director of

UNFPA's Technical and Evaluation Division. In his remarks, Mr.

Singh argued that the changed context of development planning in

the past decade urgently demands a fresh approach.



     As several contributions to the round table pointed out, many

of the ways in which population was linked to planning in the past

presupposed an approach to planning that has been superseded by

some very different thinking about how to best achieve development. 



     Over 40 experts with broad experience in developing countries

and officials from bilateral and multilateral international

assistance agencies vigorously debated the consequences for

population policy formulation of the new planning "paradigm", the

topic of the round table's first session. Other sessions focused on

the implications of structural adjustment policies for human

resources, policy research challenges, divergent experiences from

countries and regions, and future directions for population and

sustainable development.



     The operational and institutional means of integrating

population into development also came under scrutiny, as

participants suggested several innovative ways to better achieve

this.



RECOMMENDATIONS



     The round table adopted a set of recommendations directed at

Governments, international organizations and NGOs. Governments were

urged to recognize the growing need for strategic thinking about

population and development, particularly in the context of the

increasing emphasis on private, market-based initiatives for

productive growth. There was agreement that policies and programmes

need to be more participatory, involve local communities and ensure

the empowerment of women; and that planning and policy making

should be decentralized as much as possible. Policy-relevant topics

requiring analysis were enumerated.



     Highlighting the success of several countries -- notably the

Republic of Korea and Thailand -- in applying population policy and

planning, the round table recommended that other countries in early

stages of the demographic transition avail themselves of this

experience, and encouraged greater technical cooperation between

developing countries.



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