United Nations Conference on Environment and Development – Rio de Janeiro, 1992

Agenda 21, the action programme agreed at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in June 1992, covers the full scope of sustainable development, including eradication of poverty, creating sustainable livelihoods, changing consumption patterns, and strengthening the role of women and indigenous peoples.

Agenda 21 recognises that population growth, combined with growth in unsustainable patterns of consumption and production, is putting severe stress on the planet’s life-support systems.

It recommends the following actions in the population sphere:

Providing health and reproductive health services for all

Reproductive health services, information and education should be provided to all men and women, enabling them to make their own decisions on family size, and to reduce maternal and infant mortality from all causes.

Linking population and environment

Planning and policy making should provide for the inevitable population growth that will happen because of population momentum. They should also aim to speed up the demographic transition to slower population growth.

Population should be integrated into national planning, policy and decision making. National reviews should be conducted on how to do this.

Governments should analyse the relationships between population trends and environmental degradation, including the impact of migration on environment and vice versa.

National carrying capacity should be assessed, especially in relation to limited resources such as water, land, and biodiversity.

Areas and groups that are vulnerable to demographic and environmental change should be identified.

Governments should develop policies and programmes on migration driven by environmental degradation, and on migration that might cause environmental degradation.

National institutions should be strengthened to implement these changes.

Local programmes linking population and environment

Integrated development programmes at local level should include population and environment elements, with special attention to women’s roles.

Population and environment education should be fostered in formal and non-formal education, to raise awareness of interactions between population and sustainable development.

Research and data

Demographic trends and factors should be incorporated in the global analysis of environment and development issues.

The interaction between demographic trends and sustainable development at all levels should be researched.

National databases on demographic and environment trends should be built and strengthened.

Data should be produced for the same periods and sub-national areas as physical, biological and socio-economic data, so that links can be analysed.

Countries should improve their capacity to assess the environment and development implications of national population trends.

International Conference on Population and Development – Cairo, 1994

The 1994 International Conference on Population and Development at Cairo recognised the links between all aspects of sustainable development, especially poverty eradication, sustainable economic growth, environmental balance, population, education, gender equity and equality, and sexual and reproductive health and rights.

It broadened the idea of population action by putting at its centre the concept of reproductive rights – the right to reproductive health, including family planning, sexual health, safe motherhood, and advice and treatment about infertility. It also endorsed the concept of gender equity and equality.

Cairo drew up a list of targets and timetables for development in the quality of life. Major targets for the year 2015 (or earlier) included:

• Reproductive health services for all.
• Universal primary education for all.
• Closing the gap between female and male education by 2005.
• Infant mortality rate below 35 per 1000 live births, and under five mortality rate below 45 per 1000 live births in all countries.
• Reduction of maternal mortality 75% below 1990 levels.

On population and environment Cairo declared two central goals:

• Population should be fully integrated into sustainable development policies, plans, decisions, programmes and resource allocation at all levels and in all regions. Institutions to permit this should be developed, and periodic reviews of progress should be made.
• With full respect for human rights and values, policies should seek population trends, consistent with achieving sustainable development and improvement in the quality of life.

Specifically, Cairo reaffirmed the recommendations of Agenda 21, calling on governments to:

• Integrate demographic factors into environmental impact assessments.
• Take measures to eradicate poverty, including income-generation and employment strategies aimed at the rural poor and those living within or near fragile ecosystems.
• Use demographic data to promote sustainable resource management.
• Use economic, legal and other measures to modify unsustainable consumption and production patterns, foster sustainable use of resources and prevent environmental degradation
• Address the ecological implications of future increases in population numbers and concentration, particularly in ecologically vulnerable areas and cities.

Stressing that integrated policy approaches are needed for social issues such as poverty, population, gender equality and food security, the 180 participating governments agreed that countries should:

• Strengthen food, nutrition and agricultural policies and programmes, and fair trade relations, with special attention to the creation and strengthening of food security at all levels.
• Eliminate existing inequities and barriers to women in the workforce and enhance women’s participation in all policy-making and implementation, as well as increasing their share of productive resources, including the ownership of land, the right to inherit property and access to credit.
• Generate jobs for women in the industrial, agricultural and service sectors through the establishment of more favourable climates for expanded trade and investment of an environmentally sound basis, along with greater investment in human resource development.
• Formulate and implement comprehensive population policies and programmes to support the objectives and actions of Agenda 21.

The World Summit for Social Development – Copenhagen, 1995

Copenhagen addressed the central issues of employment, poverty and social integration. Governments promised to place people at the centre of development and to direct their economies to meet human needs more effectively.

Copenhagen explicitly recognised that population growth, structure and distribution challenged the natural environment and human adaptive capacities. These demographic factors also had a significant influence on poverty, and on social and gender inequities.

The summit backed Cairo’s action programme and targets on family planning services and education, safe motherhood, pre and post-natal care and breastfeeding.

Fourth World Conference on Women – Beijing, 1995

Beijing endorsed all of Cairo’s recommendations on reproductive rights and health services, education and information. The conference recognised that reproductive rights are crucial for women’s health, education and economic status.

The links between population and environment were not directly addressed, but Beijing examined the central role that women play in managing natural resources.

Women’s environmental skills and experience should be used to the fullest. They should participate equally in making policies and decisions about natural resource management, conservation and rehabilitation, at all levels. Strategies and mechanisms should be developed to increase the proportion of women among managers, planners, implementers and evaluators of environmental projects and actions

Women should be empowered as producers and consumers, so they can take effective environmental actions along with men in homes, communities and workplaces.

United Nations Conference on Human Settlements – Istanbul, 1996

Habitat II recognised that rapid rates of urban population growth and of migration aggravate urban environmental and social problems. Rural population growth, outpacing the growth of rural jobs, also fuel rural-to-urban migration.

Population and demographic issues should be addressed in urban planning and management. Settlements should be planned to take into account expected population growth. There should be public information and communication campaigns to raise awareness of the impact of population change on human settlements.

Habitat II also urged programmes to ensure universal access for women throughout their life span to the full range of affordable health care services, including reproductive health services.

World Food Summit – Rome, 1996

The World Food Summit saw population growth along with stress on natural resources as major challenges for future world food security. It called for early stabilisation of world population, equality between men and women, and sustainable management of natural resources, along with the elimination of unsustainable consumption patterns.

The summit called for population concerns to be fully integrated into development strategies, plans, and decision-making. Governments should devise population policies and programmes. They should promote access for everyone, especially poor, vulnerable and disadvantaged people, to primary health care and reproductive health services.