International Conferences on Population

International Conferences on Population and Development

First conference: Romania, 1974

The first international conference on population was held in 1974 in Romania under the sponsorship of the United Nations. It was anticipated that this conference would dramatize the need for population control, but instead, a debate took place between rich and poor countries over what was causing poverty: population growth or underdevelopment

First conference: Romania, 1974

• A number of the poorer countries argued that what they needed was more economic development

The conference ended with what seemed to be an implicit compromise:

What was needed was both economic development and policies to manage population growth, and that an emphasis on only one factor and a disregard of the other would not work to reduce poverty.

Multiple Choice

What were the two sides of the debate which took place between rich and poor countries over what was causing poverty:

• crime or urbanization

• population control or welfare

• population growth or underdevelopment.

• big government or small government

Second conference: Mexico, 1984

In 1984 the United Nations held its second world population conference in Mexico City. The question of the relationship between economic growth and population growth was raised..again.

Mexico, 1984

• Again. The United States, represented by the Reagan administration, argued that economic growth produced by the private enterprise system was the best way to reduce population growth.

• Subsequently the United States stopped contributing funds to the United Nations.

  
  

Open Ended

What do you think about the Reagan administration's idea? Do you think that plan could've worked in Guatemala? Why or Why not?

Mexico, 1984

• The conference declared the conclusion reached at the first conference ten years earlier that both birth control measures and efforts to reduce poverty were needed to reduce the rapidly expanding global population.

Third conference: Cairo Egypt, 1994

The United Nations held its third conference on population – (now) called the International Conference on Population and Development – in Cairo, Egypt in 1994.

Cairo Egypt, 1994

• The conference broke new ground in agreeing that women must be given more control over their lives if population growth was to be controlled.

• The conference approved a 20-year plan of action whose aim was to stabilize the world's population at about 7.3 billion by 2015.

Cairo Egypt, 1994

The plan also called for new emphasis to be placed on the education of girls, providing a large range of family planning methods, health services, and  economic opportunities for women.

Open Ended

Now in 2021, do you believe that the global community has met the goals that were established in 1994? Do you see examples of this in your community or country?

The Outcomes

• Five years after the Cairo conference, the United Nations found that a number of new approaches to managing population had been initiated around the world, but that scarce resources and many needs led to population programs not receiving top priority in all developing nations.

• It found also that pledges of aid from developed nations were seriously underfunded. 

The Outcomes

• In 2003 the United Nations General Assembly voted to end the automatic holding of international conferences. Because of their large expense of funds and human energy and the danger that they were becoming routine, the United Nations decided that the decision to hold an international conference should be made on a case-by-case basis when there was a special need for international cooperation.

Open Ended

Do you agree with the UN's decision to stop having conferences as a scheduled event? Why or why not?