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News about usPSN participates in strategic workshop in Istanbul, May 15th/16TH 2008“SRHR-Population- Environmental Degradation- Climate Change”The Population and Sustainability Network (PSN) were pleased to participate at a conference co-hosted by the EuroNGOs network and the European Parliamentary Forum (EPF) in Istanbul. The event brought together 32 representatives from the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR), humanitarian and environmental sectors from the EU member States, the USA and Africa in order to further understanding on the linkages between population issues, climate change and the environment. PSN’s new coordinator, Karen Newman, spoke in the same session as Frances Kissling, Former President and founder of Catholics for Free Choice, whilst addressing the ethical considerations implicit with SRHR and population related issues. Click here for presentation. PSN also led a workshop with delegates to examine the links and further discussion about the impact of the population factor on environmental degradation and the links between climate change and population. Representatives from UNFPA, WHO, IPPF, Population Action International, DSW, World Watch Institute and Global Footprint Network were some of the international delegates at the two day event. For a list of attendants click here. With the combined knowledge from the SRHR and environmental sector, lively discussion ensured, and stimulated by a diverse range of presentations, concluded that there is pressing need for further partnership between the two sectors. The findings also emphasised that this relationship is multifaceted and densely nuanced with a great need for further research, since while experts agree that there is a connection between population and environment, with the current paucity in empirical findings the exact relationship will remain contested territory. Given the emerging interest in the relationship between population growth, other general demographic trends, and climate change the strategic workshop was an important initial step within Europe to encourage discussion and examine the implications for donors and policy makers. PSN plans to build upon this initiative with a proposal to hold an International Forum with government specialists, academics, policy makers and NGO personnel in order to map out key target areas for research and subsequently appropriate policy responses. More information relating to this forthcoming project will be posted on the website shortly.
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PSN Exhibits at Global Conference
PSN was pleased to participate in the Women Deliver Conference held in London from 18th to 20th October 2007. The event marked the 20th anniversary of the Safe Motherhood Initiative and brought together over 1800 delegates from national and international NGOs, governments, the media and academic institutions to address the enduring levels of maternal and infant mortality around the world.
PSN exhibited alongside UNFPA, WHO, IPPF, Family Care International and Marie Stopes International as well as many other NGOs to bring attention to the 500,000 women who have died from pregnancy related causes since the Safe Motherhood Initiative launch 20 years ago. The event was primarily concerned with sparking political will and encouraging budgetary allocation to safe guard the health of hundreds of thousands of women that have no access to contraceptives and family planning services or obstetric and antenatal care. It was a heartening message therefore that opened the conference when DFID committed £100 million to UNFPA to further advance their work with mothers and families around the world.
World Environment Day Event, June 5th - London
ROCK & ROLL TO A BETTER ENVIRONMENT
PSN participates in WED Trust Concert
KOKO, Camden, London
Photo: Gregory Nolan and Holly Erskine at KOKO
World Environment Day, established in 1972 by the United Nations General Assembly, is commemorated each year on 5 June. It is one of the principal means through which the UN stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and enhances political attention and action.
The WED Trust successfully raised the profile of World Environment Day in the UK through a concert held in central London at the famous music venue KOKO.
Chart topping musicians The Guillemots headlined at the event, with other appearances from Pull Tiger Tail, The Vibrants and one of Africa’s most revered groups, Bukky Leo and Black Egypt.
Amongst other things, the event hosted international conservationists; Li Quan of Save China's Tigers and Carlo Laurenzi, Chief Executive of London Wildlife Trust, also travel writer Jim Perrin and well know TV figures.
PSN Guest Speaker
Dr Susannah Mayhew of
PSN and LSHTM spoke on the impact of population growth on poverty and
the environment and how important it is to provide good family planning
on a global scale. Lack of family planning choice, particularly in
developing countries, has been identified by the World Environment Trust
as an issue of both social and environmental concern, of equal
importance to climate change.
For more information see:
www.wed-trust.org
Population Forums
To complement the Hearings process, a series of well-attended Population Forums was organised by PSN, in partnership with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
These culminated in a high profile event held at the Houses of Parliament on January 30th 2007.
With the title of Population: The Unfinished Agenda – from Research to Action, the three speakers were:
Gareth Thomas,
MP, Parliamentary
Under-Secretary of State for International Development
Dr Nafis Sadik,
Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General
Professor Chris Rapley,
Director of the British Antarctic Survey
From left to right: Professor Chris Rapley, Dr Nafis Sadik, Christine McCafferty MP, Gareth Thomas MP and Richard Ottaway MP.
Minister predicts dire scenario in much of Africa The first speaker,
Gareth Thomas, MP, the Permanent Under Secretary for International
Development cited three particular countries: “the population of Niger
and Burkino Faso will treble in coming decades and already these
populations are struggling to meet the needs of their citizens and
provide sufficient services. In Ethiopia there will be an extra 10
million children to teach; in Uganda the need to provide sexual and
reproductive health services to a growing population of those at
reproductive ages that will reach more that 65 million in 2050. There
will be great pressure on the provision of basic services including
water, fuel and wood. Recent white paper reports have recognised the
importance of climate change and population growth as both interacting
and contributing to severe deterioration of the world’s environment;
predicted consequences include conflict, mass migration, water shortage,
and food security issues. He concluded that
“Population is the unfinished agenda, but one to which we must
now all return if we are committed to achieving the MDGs and ensuring
that those achievements are sustained and continued over the longer
term”. “MDGs
will not be achieved by 2015” Following him, Dr
Nafis Sadik – former director the UN Population Fund - reminded us that
there is widespread belief that fertility rates are declining, however
most growth in population occurs in poor countries. The MDGs are
therefore are not going to be achieved by the deadline 2015. Politicians
believe in “birth dearth” but this is not the case in developing
countries where an unacceptable increase in growth is predicted. She
concluded by saying “The fact is, today, developing countries want help
with their population problems – but they want it on their own terms,
just as Cairo said they should. I don’t think there’s anything
unreasonable about that, and donors should be prepared to work with
countries on that basis. It’s in everyone’s interest”. Finally, Professor
Chris Rapley, in his presentation about population and climate change,
reminded us of the increasing impact of population, as summarised in the equation I=PAT (Impact = Population x Affluence x Technology), and we
are moving beyond the 450-600 parts per million CO2 in the atmosphere
that is required to avoid serious climate change. Human population
growth is playing a significant role here. He concluded “An Absent Human
has No Footprint”. The six previous
Forums from September to December 2006 covered the following topics:
* Population, poverty and the MDGs
– Gender, women’s empowerment and universal access to education – The
impact of population growth.
See
http://www.populationandsustainability.org/activities/forums.php
for these
other presentations.
We are delighted to welcome Dr Nafis
Sadik to the PSN Advisory Group. Dr Sadik, from Pakistan, is
currently Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General and his Special
Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Asia and the Pacific, with the rank of
Under-Secretary-General.
Professor Chris
Rapley brings invaluable
expertise to the PSN's Advisory Group. He is Director of the British
Antarctic Survey (BAS) and President of the Scientific Committee for
Antarctic Research and a member of the Joint Committee for the
International Polar Year 2007-2008.
We welcome two new organisations as members of the Network:
DSW – the German Foundation for
World Population
is an international development
organisation. Their main goal is to help people free themselves from
poverty through support for family planning and sexual and reproductive
health projects in Africa and Asia.
Rainbo –
Health Rights for African Women: Rainbo was started in 1994 by a group
of African immigrants in the USA in order to impact on U.S. private and
government funding in Africa and the United Nations. Rainbo is an
African led international non-governmental organisation working on
issues of women's empowerment, gender, reproductive health, sexual
autonomy and freedom from violence as central components of the African
development agenda.
We warmly welcome two new members to
the PSN's Advisory Group:
Professor Jay Satia,
Executive Director of the International Council on Management of
Population Programmes (ICOMP), based in Malaysia. He has published
extensively and has been a consultant to many governments and
international agencies including the World Bank and the United Nations
Population Fund (UNFPA).
Also joining us is
Dr Ndola Prata
from Angola. Currently she is Assistant Adjunct Professor of Maternal
and Child Health and International Health at the School of Public
Health, University of California, Berkeley. Before coming to Berkeley
she was head of the social statistics department at the National
Institute of Statistics in Luanda.
Signpost to Advisory Group entry.
Titled "Population Impacts on Economic
Development", this was the first annual research conference
sponsored by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Population
Reference Bureau.
Steven Sinding
former
Director-General of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF)
from 2002-2006. Before joining IPPF, he was Professor of Population and
Family Health and Adjunct Professor of Public Policy at Columbia
University.
Martha Campbell
founder and president of Venture Strategies for Health and Development
(www.venturestrategies.org)
and a Trustee of the London-based Margaret Pyke Memorial Trust. Zipporah Musau
brings to the steering group her journalistic experience and knowledge
of Kenya and other parts of Africa.
Zippy has worked as senior editor for the Daily Nation in Nairobi, as a
sub-editor for the East African Standard, and as a reported for the
Kenyan National Assembly. Awarded the African Journalist Award for the
year in 2000, she is currently studying for an MA in International
Journalism at the City University, London.
Sustainable Steps aims to develop a model for educating young people
about sustainable consumption and making healthy, practical and
influential choices in their everyday lifestyles. We
work under the mentorship and inspiration of the Population and
Sustainability Network. Our
inaugural meeting was held at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical
Medicine and attracted a group of young women with backgrounds in
demography and health, HIV/AIDS, drug and sex offenders, and a general
interest in environmental issues. The most important lesson we learned
in that meeting was that we all have a lot to learn. With
our studies, our jobs and our burgeoning interests in the subject of
consumption and sustainability, we realize we must educate ourselves and
each other before we begin to reach out to the wider community. For more information and/or to get
involved, contact Emma Collins –
ec@populationandsustainability.org
or Rena Greifinger –
rg@populationandsustainability.org
"The
Myth of Age Dependency". Why an ageing population should not be a problem for the
Developed World.
READ MORE
See our newsletter Population Matters in
Publications
Christine McCafferty,
MP, the chair of the APPG, introduced the Forum, saying “World
population growth is a serious threat to health, environment and
socio-economic development and yet at the same time as populations are
rising, the funding made available is falling and unmet needs increase.
Lack of access to family planning, the right to choices and human rights
are critically important in improving reproductive freedom and
achieving a decline in population growth”.
* Contraception, population growth and its link with maternal and
child mortality.
* HIV/AIDS and population – joined up working?
* Environmental sustainability and population
* States and individuals: population and the discourse of rights
Former UNFPA director joins PSN
Advisory Group (12.3.07)
In 1971, she joined the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) serving
in various capacities until her appointment as its Executive Director in
1987, a post she relinquished in December 2000. Signpost to Advisory
Group entry.
Director of British Antarctic Survey joins PSN Advisory Group (14.2.07)
Through its world-renown research on ice cores, BAS has provided
invaluable information to confirm the acceleration of global warming
through anthropogenic activities. Signpost
to Advisory Group entry.
PSN membership expands (25.11.06)
Distinguished new members join PSN
Advisory Group (15.11.06)
Hewlett/PRB Conference in London
(3.11.06)
Held in London, It marked a significant step forwards in highlighting
this key aspect of the population issue.
Toby Aykroyd, PSN's Co-Chairman, gave a presentation to the conference
on the vital role of effective representation in support of research
findings. Taking his cue from an unlikely quarter Carl Rove's strategy
for the Republican campaign in the US Toby Aykroyd's theme was that
significant research findings can be more effectively promoted to
decision takers if an integrated representation strategy is used to
deliver the right messages to the right quarters whether in "sound
bites" to politicians or via more in-depth analysis to leading civil
servants in relevant finance, planning and health ministries. A PDF
version of the PowerPoint presentation is available on the publications page.
New Members of the Steering Group We welcome:
He has written extensively on international population matters and is
the author of the article on “family planning programs” in the
Encyclopedia of Population and co-editor of Population Matters:
Demographic Change, Economic Growth, and Poverty in the Developing World
(Oxford: 2001).
Launch of Sustainable Steps - the youth arm of PSN
The
Way Ahead
In the next few months we will be setting up discussion groups to
research and report on topics in sustainable consumption, eco-friendly
living and taking small steps toward a healthier and less-impacting way
of life.
In June we headed to the Big Green Festival in Ipswich to represent PSN
and Sustainable Steps, to network with organizations and individuals in
the field and very slowly to begin our outreach work. This can be done
through distributing flyers, wearing t-shirts and/or setting up a booth
with our logo and ideas.
Major new PSN
Initiative Launched (10.01.2006)
