The Cairo Conference: Achievements and Canadian Contributions

Abstract

A significant achievement of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) was the considerable work of consciousness-raising about population and its relationship to other key issues. ICPD participants reached a consensus on a 99-page document with only a few countries having reservations about only parts of the document. 90% of the text had been agreed upon before ICPD but the texts sections on abortion were worked out during the conference thus the issue of abortion received much press coverage. The document stresses in almost every chapter the interrelationships of underdevelopment poverty environmental degradation low status and lack of education among women and inadequate reproductive and other health services including family planning. It called for the approach to population and development to be fully integrated. ICPD did not discuss population control but the need to address the interrelated factors that if pursued comprehensively will likely result in lower fertility. The text dedicates a whole chapter to international migration. Nongovernmental organizations played a key role in the text. The biggest accomplishment of ICPD was the implicit assumption that women when informed and having the needed services will tend to make sound and enlightened choices about their fertility that benefit themselves their family and society in general. Canadians contributed in a meaningful way to ICPD. Canada had a representative in seven of eight special groups charged to thrash out tough issues. Canadians were largely responsible for guiding consensus on qualitys being as important as quantity in family planning programs. They were active in promoting agreement on the concept of reproductive health. Canada is involved in the UN Population Commission the agency overseeing follow-up to ICPD. Canadian demographers have formed a Contact Group on Population and Development to facilitate their involvement in population and development activities.