UN Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs,
with support from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA)
|
| UN Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, with support from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) |
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This newsletter is being made available by the Population Information
Network (POPIN) of the United Nations Population Division (DESIPA)
and Population Communication International. For further information
please contact Patrice_Newman@together.org
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INTERNATIONAL DATELINE
A Population and Development News and Information Service
DECEMBER WORLD POPULATION UPDATE:
5,822,064,000 (Population
Reference Bureau)
DECEMBER 1996
POPULATION GROWTH, POVERTY AND THE STATUS OF WOMEN in societies
were three pivotal issues at the second U.N. World Food Summit, which
took place from 13-17 November in Rome. Population growth because
the burgeoning number of people and their demands are straining the
world's natural resources--including the water, soil and nutrients
required to grow food. Poverty because at least 800 million people--
70 percent of them women--and many nations do not have sufficient
income to buy the food they need. And women because in many parts
of the world, besides comprising a majority of the poor, women
produce at least 75 percent of all food--but don't have equal access
to credit, land, water, and many other necessities. While in Rome,
delegates from 173 countries agreed on a "Declaration on World Food
Security" and a "World Food Summit Plan of Action." Both documents
outline strategies and ideas to reduce the number of malnourished
people in the world to half their present level by 2015. In the
declaration--negotiated prior to the actual conference, countries
agree to try to increase food production while: wisely managing
natural resources, eliminating excessive consumption and production
trends, and working towards world population stabilization. "The
problems of hunger and food insecurity have global dimensions and are
likely to persist, and even increase dramatically in some regions,"
the Rome Declaration says, "unless urgent, determined and concerted
action is taken, given the anticipated increase in the world's
population and the stress on natural resources."
CLIMATE CHANGE, DISASTER RELIEF, OVERFISHING, TRADE, AND
ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION are some of the other issues explored in
the Rome Declaration and World Food Summit Plan of Action. The 173
countries attending the summit agreed that food security depends on
the "sustainable management" of fish stocks, forests and wildlife.
They also concurred that an incentive system is essential to motivate
such management. Noting a "dramatic increase" in the number of civil
conflicts around the world--like the one in Rwanda that instigated
massive refugee movements into Zaire, delegates attending the World
Food Summit agreed that early action is needed both to defuse such
tensions before they erupt and to minimize their impact on innocent
victims. Regarding sustainable development policies, delegates
agreed that they should promote "full participation and empowerment
of people, especially women; an equitable distribution of income;
access to health care and education, and opportunities for youth."
They also agreed that: "Particular attention should be given to those
who cannot produce or procure enough food for an adequate diet,
including those affected by war, civil strife, natural disaster or
climate-related ecological changes."
POLITICAL, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL STABILITY IN MANY COUNTRIES AND
REGIONS COULD BE SERIOUSLY AFFECTED BY ACCELERATED MIGRATION, says
the Rome Plan of Action, noting that "poverty, hunger and
malnutrition are some of the principal causes of accelerated
migration from rural to urban areas in developing countries." Unless
remedial action is taken to help the people and areas suffering most
from hunger and malnutrition, the Plan says, even world peace could
be compromised. The Plan goes on to say that reaching sustainable
world food security is "part and parcel of achieving the social,
economic, environmental and human development objectives agreed upon
in recent international conferences," referring to the 1996 Habitat
II
Conference in Istanbul; the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women;
the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development, and
all the other conferences organized by the United Nations in this
last decade of the twentieth century.
"POVERTY ERADICATION IS ESSENTIAL TO IMPROVE ACCESS TO FOOD"
asserts the Rome Plan of Action, adding that, "the vast majority of
those who are undernourished either cannot produce or cannot afford
to buy enough food." Jacques Diouf, Director General of the U.N.
Food and Agriculture Organization, pointed out that nine of the
world's richest countries spend more on dog and cat food in six days
than is allocated to the entire annual budget of the United Nations
food agency. And, he added, this same agency's annual budget is
equal to less than five percent of what Americans spend on weight-
loss products every year to fight the effects of overeating.
For more information, contact: World Food Summit Secretariat,
FAO Headquarters, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy.
Fax: (396) 5225-5249. E-mail: <food-summit@fao.org> FAO Web site:
http://www.fao.org or gopher.fao.org
(World Food Summit: Rome Declaration on World Food Security and
World Food Summit Plan of Action, November 1996, Rome, Italy)
* * * * *
IN BRIEF . . .
. . . POLAND's lower house of Parliament passed a bill in November
liberalizing the nation's abortion law. Under the new law, women are
permitted to end pregnancies up to the 12th week if they face
financial or personal problems, but only after counseling from an
authorized doctor who will not be involved in performing the
procedure, and a three-day waiting period. The measure does not
specify how financial or personal problems are to be assessed. The
bill also provides for sex education in schools and reducing the
expense of contraceptives. Under existing Polish law, abortion is
permitted only if a pregnancy threatens a woman's life or health, or
results from incest or rape, or in cases of severe fetal anomaly.
The Catholic Church mobilized a huge campaign in Poland against the
new bill, which was passed when a majority in the lower house
overturned a previous Senate veto. As with the previous law, anyone
found to have performed an abortion illegally can be imprisoned for
up to two years. Before taking effect, the bill must be reviewed by
Poland's constitutional tribunal, which could reject the law
outright.
(New York Times, 25 October 1996, New York/Warsaw; Reproductive
Freedom News, 22 November 1996, Center for Reproductive Law and
Policy, New York)
. . . SOUTH AFRICA passed legislation in early November allowing
abortion on demand during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy--state-
financed if a woman lacks private medical insurance--and under a
broad range of conditions from the 13th through 20th week. The bill
will displace existing South African law which allows abortion only
in the case of rape, incest or immediate danger to the mother's
mental or physical health. The bill was opposed in Parliament by
South Africa's three main right-wing parties. Under the limited
conditions, abortion has been legal in South Africa since 1975. To
obtain a legal abortion, women had to gain the approval of at least
two doctors, a public notary, and a medical board. Arguing in
parliament for the new law, Health Minister Nkosazana Zuma said that
South Africa's existing abortion laws forced poor women--mostly
black--to resort to back-street operations. A 1995 survey by the
national Medical Research Council concluded that between 200,000 to
300,000 illegal abortions were carried out in South Africa annually.
More than 70 percent of those receiving legal abortions were members
of the 10-percent white minority.
(Christian Science Monitor, 7 November 1996, Boston/
Johannesburg; New York Times, 6 November 1996, New York/Cape
Town; Reproductive Freedom News, 22 November 1996, Center for
Reproductive Law and Policy, New York)
. . . CERVICAL CANCER has been formally connected to the human
papilloma virus (HPV), a sexually-transmitted infection. Fifty-five
specialists from 17 countries labelled two types of the virus as
"carcinogenic to humans," two others as "probably carcinogenic," and
suggested that other HPV types are "possibly carcinogenic." The
meeting was jointly organized by the World Health Organization (WHO)
and the European Research Organization on Genital Infection and
Neoplasia (EUROGIN), a non-profit health organization. Cervical
cancer is the most common cancer in women in developing countries and
the second most common cancer in women worldwide. Three-quarters of
the 300,000 annual deaths from cervical cancer occur in poor nations,
according to WHO. The disease is known to be strongly linked with
an early onset of sexual activity and multiple sexual partners. In
both developed and developing countries, WHO says, more than 90
percent of new cases result from sexually transmitted HPV infection
of the cervix. (WHO Press, 3 July 1996, World Health Organization,
Geneva)
* * * * *
" IN THE NEXT DECADE, POPULATION GROWTH, RISING AVERAGE RESOURCE
CONSUMPTION AND PERSISTENT INEQUALITIES IN ACCESS TO RESOURCES ensure
that scarcities will affect many environmentally sensitive regions
with a severity, speed and scale unprecedented in history." So
writes Thomas Homer-Dixon of the University of Toronto in the
briefing book, Environmental Scarcity and Violent Conflict. With co-
author Valerie Percival, Homer-Dixon says that poverty-driven
migrations, ethnic tensions and weak government--often interpreted
as the causes of conflict--are in fact often the result of
environmental scarcity. Under the auspices of the University of
Toronto's Peace and Conflict Studies Program, an international team
of analysts conducted a five-year investigation into the link between
scarcities and civil strife, focusing on the dynamics of scarcity and
conflict in 12 developing countries. Their findings reinforce the
notion that social policy is ineffective unless formulated within the
unique social context of regions and nations. With the exception of
oil and certain strategic minerals, the study says, the political
significance of nonrenewable resources is declining. It also found
that the substitution and the wide geographical distribution of non-
renewable resources ensure that they rarely provoke international
conflict. Market forces, the study team found, have reduced demand
and stimulated substitution and technical innovation. But the
Toronto group found substantial evidence that scarcities of renewable
resources such as croplands, fresh water, fuelwood, fish, etc.
threaten the internal stability of many developing countries.
Resulting humanitarian disasters and large migrations, Homer-Dixon
says, can in turn threaten international security. According to the
University of Toronto study: "Conflicts generated in part by
environmental scarcity can have significant indirect effects on the
international community."
THE CAUSES OF SCARCITY--DEGRADATION, DEPLETION, INCREASED
CONSUMPTION AND INEQUITABLE DISTRIBUTION of renewable resources--
often interact and reinforce one another, the University of Toronto
study says. In Gaza, for example, the degradation and depletion of
aquifers led to a water shortage, while population growth increased
the demand for water, and inequitable distribution resulted in less
water for Palestinians than for Israelis. And because developing
countries are particularly dependent on natural resources for
economic production and employment, Homer-Dixon says, they are
especially vulnerable to migrations when scarcities occur. He adds
that the worldwide tendency for elite sectors of societies to capture
scarce resources and for marginalized people to migrate to
ecologically fragile areas aggravates instability and scarcity. In
the Mexican state of Chiapas, Homer-Dixon writes, land scarcity
forced peasants to the hills of the Lacandon rainforest,
precipitating chronic poverty when the land could not sustain their
growing population. In Rwanda, he says, people continue to move into
delicate upland areas in search of arable soil. And while the
Toronto study found that conflict over renewable resources rarely
leads to interstate wars, civil strife within states can cause
refugee flows and humanitarian disasters that not only destabilize
neighboring states but often lead to international involvement.
COMPETITION FOR RESOURCES AGGRAVATES GROUP TENSIONS ALONG
ETHNIC, CLASS OR RELIGIOUS LINES, Homer-Dixon says, adding that
sharpened distinctions among groups increase the likelihood of
violent collective action. In the Indian states of Assam and
Tripura, violence followed the appearance of millions of Bengalis,
who had left Bangladesh partly because of land scarcity. And the
likelihood of violence increases as the balance of power shifts
against the state and in favor of challenger groups. As Homer-Dixon
writes: "Scarcity leaves the state vulnerable to violent challenges
by groups whose power or identities have been enhanced by the very
same scarcity." The study found that scarcity increases the power
of narrow coalitions to use their access to scarce resources for
excessive profits. As these coalitions become wealthier and more
powerful, Homer-Dixon says, they can reduce tax payments on their
wealth and influence state action in their favor. For instance, in
Pakistan, the government's inability to provide basic service to
migrants in urban areas led to the creation of informal systems of
illegal occupation and subdivision of state land, managed by corrupt
elites and government officials.
THE STUDY SAYS THAT SOCIETIES CAN ESCAPE TURMOIL BY ADAPTING TO
SCARCITIES--using renewable resources more sustainably, producing and
trading goods and services that don't rely on them, or finding
substitutes. Social institutions, including research centers,
efficient markets, competent government bureaucracies and incorrupt
legal mechanisms, are essential for societies to deal with scarcity,
Homer-Dixon says. Yet he adds that a state's ability to create and
maintain these key institutions may actually be diminished by
scarcity-related stress. "The capacity to adapt depends on the level
of social and technical ingenuity available in the society," writes
Homer-Dixon. "However, many countries are unable to decouple from
dependence on scarce resources because of economic, political and
social constraints."
THE TORONTO STUDY IDENTIFIES SCARCITIES OF AGRICULTURAL LAND,
FORESTS, WATER, AND FISH as the environmental problems that
contribute most to violence. However, it says, whether or not a
scarcity will result in violence depends on its interaction with a
variety of complex factors, including the character of a country's
economic system, average levels of education, ethnic cleavages, class
divisions, technological and infrastructural capacity, and the
legitimacy of political regimes. In turn, the foreign policy and
national security of developed countries are affected, as
interactions among scarcity, poverty, rapid population growth and
refugee flows: 1) affect states with large populations and extensive
resources, such as China, India, Indonesia, Brazil and Mexico; 2)
affect states in key regions, such as the Middle East, North Africa,
South Asia, Central America and the Caribbean, and 3) result in
complex humanitarian emergencies that warrant international
assistance or action, as in Somalia and Rwanda.
For more information, contact: Brian D. Smith, Project
Coordinator, Population and Sustainable Development Project, American
Association for the Advancement of Science, 1200 New York Ave., NW,
Washington, DC 20005 USA. Telephone: 202-326-6652; Fax: 202-371-
0970; Internet: BSMITH@AAAS.ORG
(Environmental Scarcity and Violent Conflict, 1996, University
of Toronto, Canada)
* * * * *
ON A SMALL BUT SIGNIFICANT SCALE, URBAN GARDENING IS STRIKING
BACK at the inroads that commercial agriculture is making on the
world's arable land. It is estimated that 15 percent of the world's
food supply now is produced by 800 million urban farmers worldwide.
According to Jan Smit, an agricultural consultant, the produce is
harvested from vacant-lot market gardens, indoor plots, rooftop
hydroponic (liquid-nourished) plantings, and other imaginative
sources. In the early 1980s, Jan Smit, then working in Tanzania,
discovered that families in Dar es Salaam were not only growing
vegetables but raising farm animals virtually in the backyards of the
nation's capital. From that beginning, Smit and his Urban
Agriculture Network team visited 100 cities in 30 countries to
collect information on the topic. The result was a book cataloguing
the variety of urban farming happening around the world, entitled:
Urban Agriculture: Food, Jobs and Sustainable Cities, published by
the
United Nations Development Program.
ACCORDING TO SMIT, URBAN AGRICULTURE IS MULTI-BENEFICIAL, with
its nutritional value only the most obvious advantage, particularly
for poor families that may spend as much as 90 percent of their
income on food. The grass-roots technology also creates jobs, Smit
says. In Calcutta, 20,000 people work as farmers on the richly
composted land of an old dump. In Singapore, 90 percent of the
city's human waste--8,000 tons a day--is collected by the Bureau of
Environmental Sanitation, treated and sold as fertilizer for
metropolitan farming. Smit notes that the risks connected with urban
farming include contamination by lead and other heavy metals from
automobile emissions. But he maintains that researchers and city
planners can reduce or even eliminate many of the pollutants before
they find their way into the food chain.
Urban Agriculture: Food, Jobs and Sustainable Cities is
available
in English for the price of shipping and handling by contacting the
Urban Agriculture Network, 1711 Lamont Street, NW, Washington DC
20010 USA. Telephone (202) 483-8130; fax: (202) 986-6732; E-mail:
72144.3446@compuserve.com
(Choices, Volume 5, Number 1, U.N. Development Program, New
York)
* * * * *
AUSTRALIA'S EXPERIENCE WITH VANISHING FRUIT AND VEGETABLE
SPECIES IS PART OF A WORLDWIDE TREND IN EXTINCTION: the loss of
domesticated varieties of fruit, vegetables and livestock. In the
late 19th century, Australian consumers and horticulturalists could
choose among 450 varieties of pears. Today, no more than five are
commonly available. And that extinction rate carries through much
of the vegetable kingdom. Since the 1920s, at least 95 percent of
cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower varieties have disappeared along
with 99 percent of celery, carrots, parsley and turnip varieties.
In some cases, extinction has been total. The Carmen potato, an
Australian staple from the 1920s to the '50s, has completely
disappeared. So, apparently, have at least 75 common bean cultivars,
all familiar culinary items early in this century. Similar losses
have been recorded among fruit and livestock. The main cause of the
phenomenon is consumer-driven commercial competition, which favors
the most profitable varieties to the exclusion of other species.
Unfortunately, these lost species frequently carry genes necessary
to ward off disease, pest, drought and temperature damage. Food
insecurity is the principal result of the loss of genetic diversity.
That means that if, for example, a favored type of wheat is wiped out
by blight, there may be few if any alternatives varieties to turn to.
Bill Hankin of Australia's Heritage Seed Curators Association laments
that "there are no police to preserve our horticultural
biodiversity." He points out that Australia has signed two
international treaties pledging biodiversity protection, but he adds:
"We have failed to honor our obligations under them."
(Weekend Australian, 19 May 1996, Australia)
* * * * *
THE UNITED NATIONS POPULATION FUND (UNFPA) NEEDS MORE SUPPORT
FROM DONOR COUNTRIES, ESPECIALLY THE UNITED STATES, says Population
Action International (PAI), a Washington-based NGO. In its new
report, Taking the Lead: The United Nations and Population
Assistance,
PAI also recommends that UNFPA call on the resources of the private
sector, including non-governmental organizations (NGOs), to join
like-minded U.N. member governments in carrying out the goals of the
International Conference on Population and Development, convened in
1994 in Cairo, Egypt. UNFPA has already proved that it is a vigorous
advocate of women's empowerment, PAI says, especially in the context
of family planning and other reproductive health services. According
to PAI, UNFPA has the greatest potential in the donor community to
take the lead in the reproductive health and development activities.
But the report acknowledges that limited resources preclude large-
scale support for women's programs, adding that U.S. congressional
resistance to funding U. N. activities is fueled not only by
financial constraints but by political considerations resulting from
misunderstandings. Chief among the misconceptions, the study
contends, is that the U.N. is ineffective and poorly managed across
the board. PAI President Hugo Hoogenboom says it is a mistake for
critics to lump all segments of the United Nations together.
MUCH OF THE U.S. OPPOSITION TO UNFPA STEMS FROM DELIBERATE
MISINFORMATION HANDED OUT BY ANTI-ABORTION RIGHTS GROUPS, according
to the PAI study. The administrations of U.S. Presidents Ronald
Reagan and George Bush, the report says, were persuaded by the
campaigning of "right-to-lifers" to justify withholding funds from
the U.N. for seven years. The critics charged that UNFPA was using
U.S. financial contributions to promote coercive abortion, including
infanticide in China. But in withholding the voluntary U.S.
contributions to the Fund, the PAI study says, both presidents
ignored their own agency findings that UNFPA "neither funds abortion
nor supports coercive family planning practices." Nevertheless, the
freeze hampers UNFPA's population assistance programs, carried out
in 167 countries during the past 27 years at a total cost of US$3.4
billion. Normally, PAI says, the United States contribution accounts
for 30 percent of UNFPA's budget. But because of congressionally
mandated cuts and other spending restrictions, U.S. funding dropped
from $35 million in 1995 to less than $5 million in fiscal 1996. And
this at a time when the role of UNFPA as advocate and policy adviser
is crucial, says Shanti R. Conly, author of the PAI study.
IN 1995, NINE COUNTRIES CONTRIBUTED OVER 90 PERCENT OF UNFPA'S
BUDGET. In descending order of contributions, they are: Japan, The
Netherlands, Denmark, the United States, Germany, Norway, Sweden, the
United Kingdom and Finland. In contrast, France, Italy and Spain
gave a total of less than $3 million, a mere 1 percent of the Fund's
budget. To buttress against further inroads into UNFPA's worldwide
activities, PAI recommends:
* Expanding its advocacy for increased funding for population
and reproductive health programs.
* Assuming the role of chief population adviser to governments
seeking aid; and working more closely with the World Bank, which has
access to political leaders and therefore can influence policymaking.
* Applying its limited resources more strategically.
Taking the Lead: The United Nations and Population Assistance
and
its companion volume, Profiles of U.N. Organizations Working in
Population, are available for purchase from: Population Action
International, 1120 19th Street, NW, Washington D.C. 20036 USA.
Telephone: (202) 659-1833.
(Press Release, United Nations Key to Population Efforts
Worldwide, 29 September 1996, Population Action International,
Washington, DC)
* * * * *
THOUGH BOMBAY IS THE FIFTH MOST POLLUTED CITY IN THE WORLD, and
one of India's most overcrowded, a new "greening" project is
attempting to bring some fresh air to the city's approximately 12
million residents. London has seven acres of green space per 1,000
inhabitants and Delhi has four, but Bombay boasts a minuscule 0.03
acres of greenery for every thousand residents. In light of one of
India's most innovative clean-up projects, this may improve. Less
than 15 years ago, Mahim Nature Park was a garbage dump surrounded
by slums and a polluted creek. But after a conversion conceived by
the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the wasteland is now a 37-acre
park that supports over 60 species of birds. Trails lead through a
range of ecosystems modeled after habitats in the neighboring state
of Maharashtra, and at the center of the park, a WWF botanist has
created a sanctuary for 105 plants, and visitors are encouraged to
buy seedlings and dried herbs for medicinal use. The park's popular
Education Centre teaches children and adults about ecology, personal
responsibility in improving the urban environment, and nature's role
in Indian culture. Between its opening in April 1994 and September
1995, over 9,000 people visited the Centre.
A "CLEAN AIR ISLAND" PROJECT IS UNDERWAY IN DOWNTOWN BOMBAY,
converting five square kilometers of congested streets into a green
urban lung. The area houses 200,000 people and over 25,000
businesses that attract an extra million commuting workers daily.
In an intensive effort to plant trees, recycle garbage and reduce
vehicle emissions, the Bombay Port Trust has turned 11 acres of
wasteland into a public park, and the Navy has set up tree and plant
nurseries, providing free plants for homes and offices. Individuals
are encouraged to contribute to "greening" the city by keeping potted
plants on window sills and balconies, and both households and
businesses are urged to separate their waste for recycling and home
composting. The most ambitious goal of Clean Air Island's organizing
committee is to replace Bombay's pollution-spewing cars and trucks--
60 percent of which are government-owned--with electrically-charged
vehicles. Lacking financial support, the plan has nevertheless been
approved by Bombay authorities, and the central government is
considering similar strategies for other cities in India.
(People & The Planet, Volume 5 Number 2 1996, Planet 21, London)
* * * * *
NGO SUPPLEMENTDECEMBER 1996
For and About NGOs and their Work
NGOs ATTENDING THE ROME FOOD SUMMIT WERE UPSET AT THE WEAKNESS
OF ONE OF THE MAJOR COMMITMENTS agreed on by government delegations:
that governments will try to reduce "the number of undernourished
people to half their present level no later than 2015." According
to Mary Theresa Plante, Chair of the NGO Committee on Sustainable
Development [see related story, p. 1 of International Dateline], the
goal is woefully inadequate. She added that she found the entire
Rome Declaration and Plan of Action "extremely weak." Because of the
summit format, Plante noted, no negotiations actually took place in
Rome. She said this frustrated a number of NGOs who made the trip
to Rome, but were unable to attend the regional preparatory meetings
at which the language of the documents was hammered out. But Plante
said that NGO participants' consciousness was raised in Rome on a
number of emerging issues. Specifically, she named international
agribusiness and genetic engineering vs. the rights of individuals,
and biodiversity. Plante said that NGOs recognized that they need
to start "beating the drum" on these and other world trade issues.
Plante also expressed dismay at the security barriers she said were
imposed between NGOs and government delegations attending the Rome
Food Summit. The Food Summit's parallel NGO Forum took place in Rome
from November 11-17.
MORE THAN 200 NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS (NGOs) ISSUED A
STATEMENT TO THE WORLD FOOD SUMMIT, outlining their ideas in response
to the official documents of the United Nations conference: the Rome
Declaration and the World Food Summit Plan of Action. Presented to
the pre-summit Food Security Council Meeting convened by the U.N.
Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) September 19-21, 1996, the
five-page NGO statement contains 31 points aimed at "achieving
universal food security." First off, the NGO statement recognizes
the need for consonance with other international declarations,
agreements and conventions; and asserts that as most of these have
been approved by an overwhelming majority of the world's governments,
"the governments are obliged to abide by them." These international
agreements include all the plans/programs of action produced at this
decade's series of international conferences; universal declarations
on human rights, and the eradication of hunger and malnutrition;
conventions on the rights of the child, biodiversity, and
desertification; and covenants on economic, social, cultural, civil,
and political rights.
THE NGO STATEMENT TAKES ISSUE WITH "THE PRESENT DEVELOPMENT
PARADIGM" that, the document says, ignores: farmers and their
workers--especially on a small scale; women; youth and children;
marginalized rural and urban groups, and even whole regions and
continents. NGOs agreed that the current growth model "generates
exclusion and poverty, and is not conducive to attaining equitable
and sustainable development, social justice, and gender equality."
They further said that the World Food Summit should focus on
"development, support and propagation of current locally practiced
alternative models and further explorations in other new paradigms
promoting people's participation and empowerment."
AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES, INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE, STRUCTURAL
ADJUSTMENT PROGRAMS, poverty, food security policy issues, health
care--including reproductive health care and family planning,
breastfeeding, water resources, genetic resources, international
trade, transnational corporations and international agribusiness, and
human rights are some of the other issues taken up by the NGO
statement to the World Food Summit. The NGOs recommend that
governments adopt policies that promote national food self-
sufficiency, noting that "developing countries are often forced to
import food from overseas, so their food security is subject to the
vagaries of the international market." To eradicate poverty, the NGO
statement says, governments must "guarantee rural and urban poor
people's access to productive resources, such as land, credit,
technology, infrastructure, basic services--including health care--
and jobs." The NGOs note that food security is a human right "which
must take precedence over macroeconomic and trade concerns,
militarism, and the dictates of the marketplace." They add that
achieving food security is an integrated endeavor requiring
sustainable human development--including equitable access to
"economic opportunities, policies and programs to assist vulnerable
groups in meeting their basic needs, protection of the environment
and the sustainable management of natural resources, peace, and
transparent, accountable and democratic government."
(Dateline reporting, December 1996, New York; NGO Statement to
Food Security Council Meeting, 19-21 September 1996, Rome)
* * * * *
A NEPALESE NGO HAS RECOMMENDED THAT ABORTION BE DECRIMINALIZED
in the Himalayan kingdom. The resolution was adopted at a symposium
organized by the Family Planning Association of Nepal (FPAN), in
conjunction with the Population and Social Committee of the national
parliament and the Nepal Medical Association. The stated purpose of
the symposium was "to secure women's reproductive rights." Speakers
said Nepal's maternal mortality rate is unacceptably high. They
blamed illiteracy, the lack of health services, and the kingdom's
"Fundamental Law"--which equates abortion with murder. One speaker
said that 75 percent of women who choose to abort a pregnancy have
unwanted pregnancies or come from very poor circumstances. Fifty
percent of abortions, the speaker said, are carried out by
traditional birth attendants, most of the time resulting in a fatal
infection to the mother. Dr. Bhola Rizal said it is a sad plight
that unsafe abortions continue to escalate Nepal's high maternal
mortality rate. While asserting that "unrestricted abortion is
neither desirable or right," the symposium's resolution added:
"Abortion of first-trimester pregnancies should be made legal if
performed by registered and trained medical practitioners." Beyond
that period, the resolution recommended, abortions should be
legalized if they result from rape, incest or contraceptive failure,
or if a pregnancy is certified by a physician as dangerous to the
physical or mental health of the women or is "likely to lead to the
birth of a deformed infant."
(FRAN Newsletter, January/February 1996, Kathmandu, Nepal)
* * * * *