The Cairo Conference on Population and Development (An NPG Position Paper)

• Donald Mann
• August 1, 1994
• Forum Papers
• Forum Paper
• 0 Comments

Click here for a downloadable, printable PDF version.

THE CAIRO CONFERENCE ON POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT
An NPG Forum Paper
by Donald Mann
August 1994

The preparations for the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) to be held in Cairo, September 5-13, 1994, leave me convinced that the Conference will offer a totally inadequate response to the crisis confronting humanity as a result of the relentless growth of world population.

If the international community cannot propose better ways to stop world population growth than those recommended in the Draft Final Document for the Conference, then we must reconcile ourselves to living in a world, a few decades from now, with 12 to 14 billion people, or more. There is the disturbing possibility, of course, that world population growth will be halted long before those numbers are reached by higher mortality rates brought on by famine and pestilence, at an incalculable cost in human suffering.

Part of the problem is that some refuse to see any crisis. But it looms nonetheless. With a present population of nearly six billion, already far beyond a sustainable level, and still growing by almost 100 million each year, the world faces a cataclysmic threat. The Draft Final Document and the 20-year Program of Action, which set the agenda for the Conference, offer us only business as usual, as is evident from its grave flaws and omissions.

….Continue reading the full Forum paper by clicking here.