Report Update is launched in House of Commons

Westminister, London. Parliamentary Hearings on Population: Return of the Population Growth Factor Report published 2007, update launched 14 July 2009

The launch event for the 2009 Update of the All Party Parliamentary Report: The Return of the Population Growth Factor: its Impact on the MDGs was held in the House of Commons on the 14^th July 2009, co-hosted by the Population and Sustainability Network (PSN) and Marie Stopes International (MSI), The event drew members of the House and  the Lords, press representatives, NGO and other representatives of civil society to mark the release of the Update of the 2007 Report, produced by the PSN, who had also taken on the task of updating the charts.  The new data  in the Update showed a continued significant under-spend on global family planning services and underlined the continuing urgency of the 2007 findings; that "the current rates of population growth will make the MDGs difficult or impossible to achieve".

Christine McCafferty MP, Chair of the APPG PD& RH chaired the event. Richard Ottaway MP, Chair of the Parliamentary Hearings which led to the 2007 report, and Professor Anthony Costello, Director of the UCL Global Health Institute and Chair of the recent Lancet commission on climate change and health delivered compelling key-note speeches.

Costello drew on his own experience of working with maternal and newborn health across South Asia and many parts of Africa, and spoke of the staggering benefits that quality voluntary family planning services can offer to individuals, families and communities.  Additionally, he drew audience's attention to the situation in some of the northern states of India that are experiencing very rapid population growth.  Costello painted a picture that illustrated the enormous challenges that lay ahead for administration and service delivery in States where it is likely that the population wil quadruple in size by 2050.

Family planning expenditure per capita has declined by 50% since the mid 1990s, despite the rising need. Baroness Jenny Tonge, during the lively question and answer session, urged political leaders to turn their attention to this global situation since it would be relatively straightforward  to reverse  the downward trend with suitable political will.

To read the Report Update Summary, please click here.

For the charts which accompany the report, many of which are updated, please click here.

To read Anthony Costello’s presentation, please click here.

Original report (2007) 

The original Report was published in 2007 by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Population, Development and Reproductive Health (APPG).

The Report collated the findings of the series of Hearings at Westminister examining the impact of population growth on the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals.

Initially proposed by PSN to the APPG, these Hearings received written evidence from some 50 bodies across the world, including UNFPA, World Bank, World Health Organisation, governments and NGOs.

PSN served on the Steering Group and submitted both written and oral evidence to the APPG for the original Report.

The findings of the Report show unequivocally that unless population growth is effectively addressed, especially in a range of poorer countries in sub Saharan Africa and parts of South Asia, the MDGs will be difficult or impossible to achieve. 

To read the original Report, and see the hearings evidence please click here.

2008 Hearings on Maternal Morbidity

PSN has also contributed written submissions to the APPG hearings on maternal morbidity in December 2008, and provided oral testimony to the hearings in December 2008 at Westminister.

To read the hearings evidence please click here.

PSN plans to replicate the Parliamentary Hearings process internationally

The APPG Report has been recognised internationally by policy makers, NGOs and academic specialists as playing a key role raising the profile of population among decision takers.

In addition to its work with the All Party Parliamentary Group to update the Westminster Report, PSN is currently developing a series of major initiatives, including:

• Support for Hearings in individual African and Asian country parliaments and legislatures to examine the local impact of population increase.

• Assessment of potential for using the Hearings format in the USA, following the Presidential elections, to promote the policy and  budget profile of population issues and help target resource  allocation.

• Opportunity for assessing the relationship of population growth with other sectors, hitherto little explored, including localised reviews of its impact on business performance.

Please contact us for further information.

PSN Proposes Climate Change Forum

PSN proposes an initiative for a major new study to establish and measure the extent of the linkages between population growth and climate change.

A project proposal has been drafted and circulated to a number of prospective participants. Emphasis will be placed on identifying practical solutions that do not compromise the right of developing countries to achieve economic growth. Further information will be provided shortly.

In addition to PSN's own initiative to explore these issues, the Network is participating at events in Europe and the United States with NGOs in both the sexual and reproductive health and environmental sectors to raise the profile of these linkages, while recognizing that the key driver of climate change is carbon emissions by countries in the North, which tend to have low or negative population growth.

Reducing population growth through increased investment in voluntary family planning programmes has the capacity to contribute to both mitigation and adaptation strategies to deal with the effects of climate change.  This is because reducing population growth will ultimately reduce carbon emission, and it is known that populations in the developing world are more vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

Population growth has been identified by numerous developing countries as a key factor sustaining or exacerbating vulnerability to climate change, and confounding adaptation strategies.  This can be seen in the National Adaptation Programmes of Action produced by countries throughout the  world as part of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

PSN is also to be shortly to be represented on the commission of writers for articles in the Lancet, the BMJ and the WHO bulletin exploring the population-health- climate change nexus. 

ICPD: What Progress After Fifteen Years?

PSN is working in collaboration with other UK NGOs supporting efforts to mark the 15 year milestone since the Cairo Program of Action in 1994.

The ‘ICPD at 15' working group is made up of policy and advocacy representatives from Marie Stopes International, IPPF, Interact Worldwide and Commat, and operates as a sub-group of the wider UK Network of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights NGOs. 

Fifteen years have passed since the world made a commitment to address global sexual and reproductive health and population issues, principally couched in a rights-based framework. Nevertheless the indicators reveal that little progress has been made in maternal mortality and the rate of infant mortality remains very high.

‘ICPD at 15', the UK working group with support from a wider European network, aims to refocus attention to the commitments made in Cairo and work towards the full implementation of the new MDG Target 5b - Achieve by 2015 universal access to reproductive health.

To read more about the key activities relating to ICPD at 15, click here.

Briefing Papers Linking Population to Major Topics

PSN policy briefing papers provide research overview and recommendations on the relationship between global population growth and climate change, fragile states and conflict. Please contact PSN directly for more information about these.                                                                                                                                                                                     

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