UNFPA’s new report: The stress of the “7 billion” goes beyond the reach of family planning

By Timothy Herrmann | October 31, 2011

In a noteworthy departure from its usual approach to the world’s population, a recent report released by UNFPA makes it clear that today’s demographic woes cannot be adequately addressed by strictly focusing on better access to family planning resources internationally. Instead, in its annual “State of the world population” report released on October 26th, the UNFPA explains that the stresses associated with aging, urbanization, immigration and education warrant strategies that look beyond the regulation of fertility. New strategies should focus on individual and state responsibility in relation to resource consumption and caring for the elderly and immigrants.

As expected, the report tethers around the number 7 billion, which is the predicted number of people that will inhabit the earth by Monday. While many would expect this number to be seen as a burden by the international community at large, the UNFPA has taken the high road and titled its report, “People and possibilities”. In the forward to the report, the fund’s executive director Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin emphasizes that “instead of asking questions like, ‘Are we too many’ we should instead be asking ‘What can I do to make the world better?'” In the 8 chapters of the report that follow, the UNFPA lays out its understanding of how that question should be answered.

The report stresses that urbanization will increase over time and that the real issue is one of sustainable consumption, not reproductive health. Similarly the report expresses the difficulty of emerging economies to provide adequate safety nets for their elderly population. In emerging economies, increased life expectancy means that the elderly are living longer and must be cared for long after they have ceased to contribute economically. In the past, the safety net for the elderly was always the family. With the increasing cost of living and urbanization associated with rapidly expanding economies, families are now finding it more and more difficult to provide for the older generations in their family. In addition many families are migrating to cities in numbers that are overwhelming both the city and state government’s ability to provide adequate public services and housing. Very few of these countries have begun to develop any welfare policies to address this impending issue.

In developed economies the situation is similar in that elderly populations are growing exponentially while birth rates are declining dramatically, creating an inverted pyramid of economic contributions in which the working population can no longer sustain the breadth of safety net demanded for the elderly. This is further complicated by the increased number of immigrants coming from the developing world in search of work and better living standards. This has put additional stress on welfare systems that are already unable to meet the demands of their own native population.

Recognizing the seriousness of these demographic trends, the UNFPA has called for increased social responsibility among both the state and individuals and for programs that go beyond merely the regulation of fertility.

The report can be found here: http://www.unfpa.org/swp/

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