Using the1994 ICPD Cairo Programme of Action to Bridge the Partisan Divide in the Discourse on Population

Win Brown, University Of Washington
Karen Hardee, Hardee Associates LLC

In 1798, Thomas Malthus famously theorized that population growth will always outpace food supply, resulting in human misery unless strict controls on reproduction were introduced. Since Malthus, debates about the role of population dynamics in socioeconomic development policies and programs have been contentious. As a result, the inclusion of population dynamics in the global development discourse is viewed as problematic. We suggest that the ‘Cairo Consensus’ from the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) provided a blueprint not only for a new, more progressive era of population policies taken up by a broad range of countries, but also as a comprehensive, inclusive resource that provides common ground among opposing actors in the population debate. We show that the Cairo Consensus remains resilient and useful for policy decades after it was forged in Cairo at ICPD and has enabled countries to shape population policies to accommodate a range of socially progressive and evolving issues. We contend that the polarization of views about the role of population in addressing the world’s most urgent global health and public policy issues can be bridged by referring back to the comprehensive, inclusive, and progressive ICPD Programme of Action (PoA).

Keywords: Population Policies, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, Population and Development

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