UNFPA Briefing Makes Light of High Mortality in Africa

By Austin Ruse

     (NEW YORK – C-FAM)  At a UNFPA briefing for the European Parliament in Brussels this week, a demographer and former United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) representative Jan Fransen joked that AIDs was helping to do the work of population control in Africa.  Fransen pointed with concern to the demographic shift in recent decades from Europe to Africa. And he also discussed possible ways to change what UNFPA sees as Africa's high fertility rate.

     The comments came as part of UNFPA's recognition of the "Day of Six Billion," which was observed around the world. The world supposedly hit a population of 6 billion on Tuesday. Fransen's joke came when he identified three ways by which population growth in Africa can be limited. First, he said, is to "increase mortality," but reminded the audience that no politician could campaign on a such a platform. Second, would be to "migrate people" out of Africa. And third, he said, is to introduce "fertility control, [which has] been UNFPA's work since 1969."

     During questions, a representative from Marie Stopes International, one of the largest abortion providers in the world, made the link implied in Fransen's statement when she wondered about population reduction and the spread of AIDs in Africa. She asked Fransen what a "demographer's approach to AIDs and STDs is since they reduce life expectancy." This link was made even though many Africans were present. Still, no one objected. "It was disturbing that no one immediately jumped up and challenged the suggestion that AIDs could be viewed as a positive phenomenon given the devastation in Africa, and that there were representatives from the African continent," said an observer at the briefing. "It seemed there was general agreement in the room for the sentiment expressed."

     Fransen's comments may be particularly troublesome to Africans since, according to UN statistics, because of the exploding AIDs crisis, the life expectancy has dropped in some countries from 61 to 47 in only a few years.

     Fransen also expressed alarm at the emphasis at UN meetings that human beings should be "at the center of development." "I'm sorry that population has been reduced to reproductive health versus the micro-level of individual rights," he said. The real concern, he said, ought to be the number of "people which the earth can hold in a sustainable way." He declared that number to be between 700 million and 1 billion people, and said the focus on human rights  disturbs him because it draws attention away from this more pressing matter of the carrying capacity of the earth.

     At the same time, however, Fransen said a focus on rights is effective in promoting population control measures. He explained that at the Cairo Conference in 1994, UNFPA changed the term "family planning" to "reproductive health," which effectively expanded the issues to include targets, STDs and sexual health and education. He said this covered, for example, the issue of targets in India, where he claimed to have overseen the administration of 200 sterilizations a day.

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