China marks World Population Day. Message from Executive Secretary Nafis Sadik of UNFPA
Sadik, N.
China population today 15(4): 13-14
1998
PMID: 12294245 Document Number: 253612
The following is a summary of the message by Nafis Sadik, Executive Secretary of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), which was delivered by Country Director Sven Burmester, on World Population Day, in China. The world's population size will pass 6 billion toward the middle of 1999. At no time in history has sustained population growth been so rapid. At the same time, health and nutrition standards have improved for most of the world, and fertility and family size have declined faster than ever before. Population growth is slowing and will continue to slow further. In 1999, the world's population size will be twice what it was in 1960. The 5 billion mark was reached in 1987. 80 million people are being added/year. 1 billion of the world's population are between 15 and 24 years of age. Their decisions regarding family size and spacing will determine the rate of population growth in the next century. These decisions will be effected by their economic, health, and educational status, and by their ability to make choices. Ensuring choice is especially important for young women. This depends on: 1) education; 2) access to reproductive health services, including family planning; and 3) men, who as fathers, teachers, and leaders, must acknowledge and support women's right to choose. Women who can choose have fewer children than their mothers did, and population growth will slow with smaller families. This is the lesson of the last 30 years. At the International Conference on Population and Development in 1994, it was agreed that reproductive health was a human right and that everyone had the right to choose their family's size and spacing. On this World Population Day, rededication is urged to make the right to choose a reality.