I suggest that this topic is a wee bit more complex than Bill Ward
implies. There's extensive research, but a good short essay is
available:
http://dieoff.org/page56.htm
and FYI there is a "South-South Initiative" which involves LDCs helping
each other in pop. stabil. at their own request.
"The 1994 conference addressed the changing paradigms
of population issues and
the inverse relationship of a nation's state of
development to the size of its
population. The more people living in a country, the
harder it is to provide proper
services and health care to all."
Since the web page has expired, I'm att. text:
SOUTH-SOUTH INITIATIVE
Population group of 14
nations say they are
ready to act on
commitments
By ERIN TROWBRIDGE
(c) Earth Times News
Service
CAIRO--After nearly five years and millions of
dollars spent getting the ball
rolling, the Partners in Population and
Development, an intragovernmental
coalition of developing nations, said they are ready
to turn words and plans into
actions. Going back to where they began, the Partners
held their Fourth annual
board meeting last recently in Cairo, the city that in
1994 hosted the United
Nations International Conference on Population and
Development.
The 1994 conference addressed the changing paradigms
of population issues and
the inverse relationship of a nation's state of
development to the size of its
population. The more people living in a country, the
harder it is to provide proper
services and health care to all. The Partners were
founded by ten countries,
Zimbabwe, Kenya, Mexico, Colombia, Thailand,
Indonesia, Bangladesh,
Morocco, Egypt and Tunisia, that had gained expertise
in the fields of
reproductive health and development. The idea was to
create a forum for the
leaders of these countries to share experiences and
exchange technical
information which would help other countries learn
from their successful
programs.
Now a coalition of fourteen nations with the recent
admissions of China, India,
Pakistan and Uganda, representatives who gathered for
the meeting in Egypt said
the plan for this year was to set down concrete plans
of action and programs of
exchange. Cairo again became a hot-seat as political
leaders, nongovernmental
organization representatives and private sector donors
gathered to discuss just
how well those ideas borne of the first conference in
this city were taking seed.
Since the very idea behind the Partners' inception lay
in the United Nations
International Conference on Population and Development
(ICPD) held in 1994,
they are, indeed, quite linked to the city whose name
will, in the minds of many,
be synonymous with population and development issues.
The meeting, more than
anything else, demonstrated that the Partner nations
are aware that after four
years, the groundwork has been laid and now it is time
to get down to work.
"The baby is out of the incubator," said Steven
Sinding, director of the population
and science division of the Rockefeller Foundation
which provides $1.3 million of
funding to cover the core activities of the Partners'
Secretariat. "From here on in,
their viability is assured. The Partners have crossed
the threshold from a
personality dependant institution to one that can
survive changes in the political
environment. And, still, one of the very pillars of
their foundation is that the
Partnership, by definition, must be a gradually
evolving thing. Today, there are no
big, undone pieces and they are gradually moving from
short term training and
study tours to more substantial, forward looking
cooperative projects."
The goal of the Partners, as laid out in the mission
statement, is to foster
cooperation and exchange of technical information
between developing countries,
an idea that's import was made explicit at the ICPD in
Cairo. Called South-South
cooperation, the theory is that developing nations
have had decades of
experience in population and development issues and
the formulation of
reproductive health service policies. These countries
should be able to have
dialogues and exchanges between one another rather
than following to a T the
development strategies sent out from the industrial
nations. The Partners'
Secretariat, based out of Dhaka, Bangladesh, is a
conduit to these exchanges.
Their aim is not to give advice, but to have technical
directors with intimate
knowledge of each countries successes and failures who
can create linkages
between countries lacking in one area with countries
who have had success there.
"My dream was that countries that have grand scale
programs will be able to
assist other developing countries from A to Z," said
Sinding. "Tunisia helping
Niger develop health service facility designs and also
assist them in finding
funders. That hasn't happened yet, but I think many
donors would like to fund
such collaborations. This would be a great and
comprehensive way to funnel
money into development."
As the United Nations prepares for the five year
assessment of the goals laid out
at the ICPD, similar concerns are entering into the
dialogue surrounding the
review. The fourteen nations represented at the
meeting each spent time
discussing their greatest successes and illuminating
aspects of their programs that
they would like to see better developed or even
implemented in other countries
with similar social dimensions. Indonesian
representatives said they would like to
replicate the all inclusive clinics they saw run by
Profamilia in Colombia, Chinese
officials said they'd like to work with Thai officials
to develop AIDS awareness
programs and many nations voiced a desire to work with
Bangladesh's
micro-credit loan programs.
"The Partners now need to establish more concrete
technical exchanges within the
South South framework," said Mohammed Nizamuddin, of
United Nations
Population Fund. "The Partners are progressing very
well and moving in the right
direction. Now, with the increased involvement of
NGO's, it is a good beginning
into the next phase, a more active phase. The member
countries need to generate
tangible South-South initiatives in training, research
and exchanges. The work
being done so far with population and reproductive
health programs can pave the
way for similar partnerships of exchange within
different sectors. I could see this
technical exchange being very important to people
working in the agriculture
sector or people within the governments trying to
raise money to fund the
projects. Some countries are very good in one area and
lacking in another. The
more dynamic the discussions become, the more voices
included, the more work
we will be able to see carried out."
As participants jostled in and out of the plushly
decorated conference and
meeting rooms in the former palace that served as the
locale for the meeting,
similar sentiments were expressed. The groundwork has
been laid, the Secretariat
is up and running, and now it is time to start
creating the solid partnerships and
paths of exchange that are the modus operandi of the
organization.
"It's our role to bring together all the agents of
change within the different nations
and define who needs to be reached, who has been left
outside," said Balla Silla,
Executive Director of the Partners. "Now that NGO's
are entering the
intragovernmental dialogues in an enriched way, I
don't see problems with the
implementation of work carried out within the two
sectors. I think that in 1999,
we're going to see a tremendous amount of exchange and
work coming from the
Partner countries."
-----------------------------------------------------------------
William B Ward wrote:
>
> The following comments are simply the words of the entitled. People have
> kids since they are the best life insurance policy there is for many
> people in the world.
(snip)
