Global Monitor

International scientists disagree on population issues

Scientists from Africa, Ireland and the Vatican refused to sign a joint statement prepared for an international meeting of scientists in New Delhi, India. The Declaration had been drafted by the Royal Society of London, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Indian National Science Academy.

The joint statement of the Declaration urged governments to establish an “integrated policy on population and sustainable development” and urged “zero population growth within the lifetime of our children.” Zero population growth was described as essential for “dealing successfully with humanity’s social, economic and environmental problems.” Population technologies were to be integrated within a broader program of “reproductive health services,” gender equalities, and the provision of clean water and sanitation.

The African Academy of Science (AAS) refused to sign the final statement saying, “For Africa, population remains an important resource for development, without which the continents’ natural resources will remain latent and unexploited.” J.K. Egunjobi, head of program at AAS, said that most Africans see “marriage as important both for companionship and for procreation.” The AAS statement also added, “The contribution of the North to Africa’s population predicament must be acknowledged in any suggestion as to how that situation is to be confronted.”

In addition, scientists from Japan and Argentina stated that the issue was “outside their competence.” The academies of Spain, Georgia, Armenia and Italy “offered excuses for not signing” (“Science academics call for global goal of zero population growth,” Nature, Vol. 386, 4 Nov. 1993).

World Bank partnership in Africa

In his remarks at the Tokyo International Conference on African development in October, the World Bank’s vice president for the African region, Edward V.K. Jaycox, listed seven points in the Bank’s efforts to contribute toward African development: economic policy and institutional reforms; capacity building; increasing agricultural production; enabling the private sector; investing in infrastructure; fostering regional integration; and coordinating the work of donors.

The second point, “capacity building,” Jaycox said, “means, above all, the development of human resources, through fostering education, health, family planning — women should receive particular attention” (“Partnership in African Development,” remarks of Edward V. K. Jaycox, vice president, Africa Region, World Bank, to the Tokyo International Conference on African Development, October 5–6, 1993, Tokyo, Japan).

Does ‘family planning’ guarantee economic development?

Implicit (and frequently explicit) within population reduction policies is the view that economic expansion will occur as the population is reduced. In spite of the fact that data analysis reveals that one third of the women in 44 developing countries currently use contraceptives, economic development continues to lag significantly in some of those countries.

Bangladesh, where “extreme poverty” continues to exist and the GNP per capita remains at 170, the country “has succeeded” in “promoting the use of contraceptives” according to a John Hopkins University (JHU) report. Even Indonesia, which is described as a “particularly fascinating” case of “family planning success” remains at 440 GNP per capita.

In Thailand, “millions” of rural couples who have been persuaded to participate in the “reproductive revolution” remain educationally neglected under current government programs. This government failure can be noted in JHU’s continued description of these couples as “poorly educated” in terms of general education although they have been ‘successfully’ schooled in the use of birth control technologies (“Births Plummet…,” Global Child Health News and Review, 29; source of GNP citations, UNFPA, Inventory of Population Projects…1989/90, 25, 261).

The Vatican speaks on UNICEF

“It is with utmost regret that the Holy See, despite having labored earnestly in the UNICEF Executive Board sessions to avoid it, has felt obliged to take the decision to earmark, this year, its symbolic contribution to UNICEF at the Pledging Conference for Development Activities held 2–3 November 1993, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. Therefore the Holy See has asked that its contribution be destined to one of the following specific programmes: namely, the areas of nutrition for the mother and child during the prenatal period, infancy and early childhood years; universal child immunization; acute respiratory infections; control of diarrhoeal diseases; and breastfeeding initiatives.

“Such a decision of the Holy See will no doubt have consequences for Catholics and Catholic Agencies who could earmark their contributions to UNICEF to provide for continued funding, support and cooperation as regards the above identified programmes which are not, and should not, become involved in the area of family planning” (Statement of H.E. Archbishop Renato R. Martino, Apostolic Nuncio, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, at the Pledging Conference for Development Activities, 3 Nov. 1993).

Integrated diarrhoeal care, nutrition and family planning

A USAID/PRITECH project in Narangwal, North India, integrated “different combinations or packages of nutrition, infection control, family planning, women’s health and children’s health services.” The Narangwal project used a classic primary health care structure involving village volunteers, and family health workers who lived in the village, supported by supervisory doctors and nurses. The integrated approach appeared to reduce morbidity and mortality and increase growth in children. Family planning use also increased in the villages with integrated inputs (C.E. Taylor; R.L. Parker, “Integrating PHC services: evidence from Narangwal, India,” Health Policy and Planning, vol. 2, 1987, 150–61).

Natural family planning effective

The British Medical Journal reports that “in the 20 years since E. L. Billings and colleagues first described the cervical mucus symptoms associated with ovulation,” natural family planning methods have incorporated these understandings and “advanced considerably.” The use of ultrasonography reveals that the symptoms “identify ovulation precisely.”

Ninety-three percent “of women everywhere can identify the symptoms” which distinguish the “fertile and infertile phases of the menstrual cycle,” according to the World Health Organization. Studies show that “rates equivalent to those with other contraceptive methods are readily achieved in the developed and developing worlds.” A study of 19,843 poor women in India had a pregnancy rate approaching zero using the natural family planning method. The method is described as “cheap, effective, without side effects, and may be particularly acceptable to and efficacious among people in areas of poverty” (R. E. J. Ryder, “Natural family planning: effective birth control supported by the Catholic Church,” British Medical Journal 1993, 307:723, 6).

U.S. Clinton Administration funds IPPF

The International Planned Parenthood Federation received $13.2 million dollars from the Clinton Administration on 22 November 1993. The monies are part of five-year USAID/IPPF commitment totaling $75 million.

The funds marked the end of a ten year U.S. ban on abortion-related international programs which had been previously announced by the U.S. President shortly after he took office. Yet, according to still-existing U.S. public law, all government population agreements with private or international organizations, including the agreement with IPPF, prohibit the use of American foreign aid for abortion-related activities. USAID agency officials claimed that when the funding of UNFPA resumes they will continue to bar the use of funds for “abortion or coercive birth control practices in China.”

J. Brian Atwood, the U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator, announced that the U.S. “also plans to resume funding in January to the U.N. Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA).” Atwood quoted the Clinton Administration’s views, “Free and uncontested access to information about family planning and to a range of methods and services is a fundamental human right” He closed his announcement with the statement: “If we aren’t able to find and promote ways of curbing population growth, we are going to fail in all of our foreign policy initiatives.”

The five year USAID commitment will “increase by almost 20 percent the organization’s available funds for Third World population activities” according to Halfdan Mahler, the IPPF secretary-general (John M. Goshko, “Planned Parenthood gets AID grant…,” Washington Post, 23 Nov. 1993, A12–13).

Japan’s foreign population expands

The foreign population in Japan has expanded by five percent in 1992 to 1,281,644, topping one percent of the nation’s population for the first time. About 1 million Asians, 187,000 South Americans, 50,000 North Americans, and 30,000 Europeans now live legally in Japan. The statistics do not include an estimated 100,000 or more illegal foreigners, mostly blue-collar workers and entertainers who have overstayed their tourist visas. The statistics do include a majority of the 688,000 North and South Koreans and many Chinese who were born and raised in Japan but are classified as foreign residents. According to the Ministry of Justice, the number of registered foreigners is 45% higher than five years ago and 74% higher than 20 years ago (Nikkei Weekly, 30 August 1993, Tokyo).

WHO predicts tuberculosis deaths

Tuberculosis is expected to kill three million people this year according to the World Health Organization; another 8 million are expected to contract the disease. Due to the development of drug resistant strains of the disease and the spread of AIDS in the U.S. and Africa, tuberculosis, which had been on a decline due to antibiotic availability, is now described as “roaring back” into prevalence. The incidence of the disease is expected to be proportionately greater in Africa where 18 percent of the deaths are expected to occur. The U.S. Center for Disease Control reports that the decline in tuberculosis in the U.S. ended in 1985. Since then there have been 39,000 cases beyond the number previously expected (Jerry Schwartz, “WHO predicts 3 million tuberculosis deaths,” Reuter, 18 Nov. 1993).

Redefining the family

Henryk J. Sokolski, coordinator of the International Year of the Family (IYF), states that “democratic aspirations” for society can best be assured “if the families they comprise are based on democratic principles.” In order for this “positive process to develop” it is necessary that individuals be “better equipped to counteract the challenges of the obsolete.”

Sokolski said that “steps have been taken in many countries to ensure that relevant national laws and administrative procedures reflect the reality of diverse forms of families.” Specific measures undertaken include “the development of a child-centered family policy” which would remove the parent from the family instead of the child in cases of child abuse, the creation of an ombudsman for children, and family support measures, e.g., taxation policy.

“The International Year of the Family,” said Sokoiski, is “a beginning of a long process” in which one of the priorities includes, “recognizing the effects of social ills on and in family relationships and acknowledging that government policy intervention may be needed to counter negative behavior or exploitation in the family.”

As the fundamental group unit of society, families must respect human rights, “particularly gender equality” and behave as “major agents of sustainable development at all levels of society.” Familial “problem-solving” will be facilitated and enhanced through “mechanisms that permit the interests of family members to be represented” while “redress for injustices exists both within and outside the family unit.”

The motto of the International Year of the Family is therefore, “Building the smallest democracy at the heart of society” (Henryk I. Sokolski, “The International Year of the Family: the World’s Support for the Smallest Democracy,” One World Many Families, Karen Altergott, Ph.D., National Council on Family Relations).

International Monetary Fund

Addressing finance ministers and central bankers from 177 countries at the beginning of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) annual meetings on September 28, the managing director of the IMF, Michael Camdessus, outlined measures to reverse the current economic slowdown. He called on members to, “refocus boldly our policy mix, strengthen the international monetary system, and sharpen our instruments of cooperation.” Camdessus stated that the “developing countries…must strive…to implement the policies that have been shown to work by those that have achieved success.”

He said, “ingredients of the strategies” include: sound macroeconomic policies; structural policies and a development strategy that make the most of the benefits of a competitive market system; liberal trade and exchange regimes; and social policies that “help insure broad-based participation by the population in economic and social life.” He explained that the fourth ingredient includes “policies to alleviate poverty, protect the most vulnerable, and slow down excessive population growth” (Camdessus address to World Bank, IMF annual meetings, 9/28/93).

Critique of International Women’s Health Coalition declaration

The International Women’s Health Coalition (IWHC), a U.N.-associated nongovernmental organization, issued a declaration on population policies which included seven “Fundamental ethical principles,” and detailed “minimum program requirements” (“Women’s Voices ‘94: Women’s Declaration on Population Policies,” International Women’s Health Coalition). In response, ANTIGENA, the Women’s Group against Genetic Engineering, Reproductive Technologies and Population Policies (Switzerland) issued eight criticisms of the Women’s Voices ‘94 Declaration. The critique pointed out:

1. “The lack of principled criticism of population policies: The IWHC declaration handles population policies as an unquestionable necessity that just needs a little feminizing.” Population policy is “sexist, racist, and imperialist.”

2. “The nexus of women’s right to self-determined reproduction with population policy, even though they are two separate concerns: Reproductive rights encompass the right of every individual woman to determine herself how many children she wants and when. Population policy, though, is an attempt by governments and international agencies, using political measures, to manipulate the number of people in particular countries, without consideration for the needs of individual women and men .… The conscious mixing of reproduction rights and population policy is a strategy to bind women for the purposes of population policies.”

3. “The integration of population policy within developmental politics: More and more the promise of developmental aid and projects is being tied to population policy programs,” the criticism stated. “Development is then only possible with parallel reduction of the population, as population growth is then propagated as the main cause of poverty, hunger and environmental destruction, instead of naming the real cause: the existing patterns of exploitation.” Also, “there are more and more financial resources flowing into population policies, as well as into family planning, leaving little or no money for such sectors as, for example, health care.”

4. “The postulation of fundamental ethical principles without placing them into a real political context: “There can never be a population policy that corresponds to the seven mentioned ethical principles [in the Women’s Voices ‘94 Declaration] as population policies are forcibly sexist, racist, imperialist and aimed at the poor.

5. “The demand for the improvement of women’s position in all life sectors as a basic condition for population policy programs: To change this system is the duty of women’s rights, not the task of population strategists.

6. “The attempt to gain acceptance for population policy programs by demanding the inclusion of women’s grass-roots organizations in planning and realization: Women’s grass-roots organizations grew out of women’s needs and resistance against the ruling conditions. Should they be taken into service and misused for gaining acceptance of population policy programs? It is cynical to answer women’s calls for contraception and abortion with population policy.”

7. “[D]emand for reproductive and sexual health services for women”: The reply noted that “money for the development of health care systems is already being withdrawn, while at the same time, capital for family planning is being increased.” Also, “For example, the demand for ‘fully informed choices’ for women in relation to contraception possibilities stands in diametrical opposition to the intentions of population planners that are seeking long term and provider-controlled methods.”

8. “The demand for a fourfold increase in financial resources for population policy…and 50 percent women’s participation in all policy decisions: Basically we are of the opinion that the participation of feminists in population policy (with or without quotas) can advance the career of individual women, but does not change the character of population policy as an instrument of ruling power.” Further, “it is absolutely utopian to believe a 50 percent quota can be achieved in the near future, whereas the demand for massive increase in financial resources for population policies will find a large support in population policy circles.”

The critique concluded: “A declaration from women for the World Population Conference 1994 in Cairo must clearly reject population policies and a so-called feminist population policy as well” (People’s Perspectives, Bangladesh, Aug. 1993, 20–21).