Mr. Rabbi Royan, Technical Advisor on Population and Development, Asia and the Pacific Regional Office, UNFPA

In his presentation, Mr. Rabbi Royan outlined the key population and development issues in the region and the UNFPA Asia-Pacific Regional Program, 2008-11, discussed population and environment linkages and highlighted the role of UNFPA in population and environmental management.

Within the Asia-Pacific region, there are stark contrasts in developmental progress, poverty and equality, health (especially in terms of sexual and reproductive health), and legal and policy framework implementation. The region is also frequently hit by natural disasters, such as typhoons, tsunamis and earthquakes. It is populated by 70% of world’s young, but at the same time its countries are at various stages of the demographic transition to ageing societies, because of differences in mortality and fertility rates. 

Countries with increasing populations need to invest more in health and education to strengthen their economic base, while areas in the midst of the demographic transition have to find ways to convert savings to investments, and formulate social security support system for aging citizens. In the Asia-Pacific region, rapid urbanization has implications for urban planning. Countries in the region also face issues of internal and international migration, rural to urban migration, as well as international ‘brain drain’ (loss of academic human resources to migration) and human trafficking. Gender is an issue to be addressed, as there are male / female disparities in health care, literacy, education, political participation, and employment and income. With the feminization of poverty and other socio-cultural barriers, women need to be empowered to make key choices, including those concerning the size of their families. 

Without good urban policy planning and environmental management, population distribution, such as intensifying urbanization, can have environmental implications. Natural population growth will be accompanied by greater demands for resources such as water, food, arable land, etc. Especially in developing countries, it can stress the environmental resources available and exert pressures on already weak social infrastructure, making it difficult to meet the basic needs of the poor. The composition of population also has environmental effects, as different population groups tend to behave differently, in terms of consumption and migratory patterns, for example. 

UNFPA works to make population, reproductive health and gender central to the development agenda at the regional and national levels. At the national level, this means developing capacities for policy and program formulation, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation, to incorporate and realize the goals of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), and the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The ICPD Programme of Action (POA) stipulates that “Meeting the basic human needs of growing populations is dependent on a healthy environment. These human dimensions need to be given attention in developing comprehensive policies for sustainable development in the context of population growth.” (Para.3.24), and the UN General Assembly Resolution 49/128, Report of the ICPD, as adopted on 19 December 1994 “fully acknowledges that the factors of population, health, education, poverty, patterns of production and consumption, empowerment of women and the environment are closely interconnected and should be considered through an integrated approach.” 

The 2008-11 UNFPA Program for the Asia-Pacific region aims for the linkages between population dynamics and gender equality, sexual and reproductive health and HIV/AIDS to be incorporated into development agendas, public policies, poverty reduction plans and budgets. This is achieved by its development and support of partnerships among organizations and institutions to build leadership capacities and disseminate information. It aims at building national capacities to collect disaggregated data on population dynamics, gender equality, young people, sexual and reproductive health and HIV/AIDS, and making it available, analyzed and used by governments, by supporting regional institutions to train demographers, and South-South cooperation among developing countries. This is especially significant leading up to 2010, when most countries will conduct national censuses. 

In the light of rapid urbanization, the planning, provision and monitoring of social service provision for the urban poor, and the use of data and population analyses to alert policymakers of unexpected urban expansion and implications for the environment are necessary. Maximizing UNFPA’s role here means promoting policy dialogue and advocacy on population and environment issues, so that they are integrated into sustainable development policies and Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRSs); providing information, education, and communication to raise public and community awareness of the relationship between population and the environment; and working within and outside the UN to address this complex and multi-faceted development challenge. Population ageing is also increasingly an issue which governments in the region will have to prepare for, so UNFPA works for the issue to be incorporated into development and poverty alleviation programs.