Population conference set for 1994; ageing, international migration examined.

• Position: International Conference on Population and Development

Fifth UN population

conference

Dr. Nafis Sadik, Executive Director of the UN Population Fund and Secretary-General of the Conference, said preparations for the event reflected the enormous needs and challenges of the future, as well as the notable advances that had been made in the population field, particularly by developing countries in implementing policies and programmes.

Egypt and Tunisia both have offered to host the Conference, scheduled for August 1994. Further preparatory meetings are planned in August 1993 and early 1994.

It would be the fifth international population conference convened by the UN. Conferences held in Rome in 1954 and in Belgrade in 1965 were purely technical meetings, limited to scientific discussions on population topics. Subsequent intergovernmental conferences in Bucharest in 1974 and in Mexico City in 1984 were concerned with establishing objectives, principles and goals, and making recommendations in the population field.

The objectives proposed for the next conference were: to appraise the progress made and identify the obstacles encountered in implementing the 1974 World Population Plan of Action; to adopt recommendations for the next decade to respond to population and development issues; to strengthen awareness of population issues and their linkage to international development; and to enhance the mobilization, at national and international levels, of resources needed by developing countries to implement future action.

Charlotte Hoehn of Germany, Commission Chairman, said that the 1994 Conference should draft a second version of the 1974 World Population Plan.

Expert group meetings in 1992 and 1993 are planned to discuss six priority issues: population growth, including ageing; population policies and programmes, with emphasis on resource mobilization for developing countries; interrelationships between population, development, environment and related matters; changes in population distribution; linkages between enhancing the roles and socio-economic status of women and population dynamics; and family planning programmes, health and family well-being.

A voluntary fund to support the participation of developing countries, especially the least developed, has also been proposed.

5.3 billion in 1990

Dr. Sadik predicted that population growth would reach 98 million annually before the end of the decade. It was also projected that by the year 2000, well over 90 per cent of growth would occur in the developing...