Can the International Conference on Population and Development Programme of Action and Cairo Consensus Normalize the Discourse on Population?

Abstract

The International Conference on Population and Development Programme of Action and its Cairo Consensus can help ensure that policy responses uphold human rights and gender equality, thereby serving as the singular global reference that could bring opposing voices in the population debate together.

Key Messages

• The International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) has come to represent shorthand for the shift from family planning programs funded based on macrodemographic variables to focus global attention on sexual and reproductive health and rights and on the lives and opportunities of individual women.

• This shorthand ignores language in the ICPD Programme of Action and the Cairo Consensus that was forged, acknowledging that enhancing individual health and rights would contribute to the demographic transition.

• Country policies since ICPD have expanded to incorporate components of the Cairo Consensus, focusing on population and sustainable development, with an expanded focus on reproductive health, individual choice, and women’s empowerment. Yet, the global discourse on “population” has grown more toxic.

• As we near the final years of the Sustainable Development Goal Agenda, we argue that the continued 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.