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

Non-Aligned Movement defines position on population

"ICPD 94"

November-December 1993

Number 10



Newsletter of the International Conference on Population and

Development, Cairo, Egypt, 5-13 September 1994





NON-ALIGNED MOVEMENT DEFINES POSITION ON POPULATION



     In preparation for the 1994 Cairo Conference, members of the

108-member Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) have set out their collective

perspective on population issues. Meeting in Bali, Indonesia, for

the Ministerial Meeting on Population of the Non-Aligned Movement,

ministers and senior representatives of over 50 developing

countries agreed on three key contributions to the ICPD process.



     From 9-13 November, first senior officials and then ministers

discussed and negotiated:



     *    the Denpasar Declaration on Population;

     *    a statement of issues and recom-mendations for ICPD; and

     *    a statement of NAM support for South-South collaboration

in population and family planning.



     Together, these expressions of members' perspectives are

expected to be used by NAM countries during the remainder of the

ICPD preparatory process. Indonesia, in its capacity as chair of

NAM, proposes to submit these documents to the ICPD

Secretary-General to ensure that NAM perspectives on population are

fully considered during the preparation of the draft final

conference document.



     Indonesia's President Soeharto officially opened the NAM

Population Meeting on 11 November. He is well known for promoting

population policies and programmes as a central theme in his

country's development strategies, and he reiterated this strong

commitment in his remarks. Dr. Nafis Sadik, ICPD Secretary-General

and Executive Director of UNFPA, also addressed the opening

session.



     Following the format of the ICPD final document annotated

outline, the NAM issues and recommendations document addresses each

of the 17 chapters in the annotated outline.



     Strong emphasis on cooperation among developing countries was

an important theme of the Bali meeting. Indonesia is one of a

relatively small group of developing countries that are actively

promoting South-South cooperation on population and family planning

issues. Many speakers stressed the relevance of such cooperation,

while emphasizing the difficulty often experienced in meeting

related travel costs.



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