Internationally acclaimed demographer, John C. Caldwell won the 2004 United Nations Population Award in the individual category. According to nomination papers sent to the Award Committee, Mr. Caldwell is one of the most influential and prolific scientists in the field of population. The Emeritus Professor of Demography in the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University in Canberra has published well over 300 articles and his work to frame the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa as a demographic, epidemiological and sociocultural phenomenon is described as unparalleled.

Mr. Caldwell’s 1976 paper, “Restatement of demographic transition theory”, which examines changing directions of intergenerational wealth flows, remains the single most influential work in this area, according to the nomination papers.

Mr. Caldwell, whose research concentrates on sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, has published several articles in the Asia-Pacific Population Journal published by the ESCAP, including “Poverty and Mortality in the Context of Economic Growth and Urbanization” co-written with his son Bruce K. Caldwell (vol. 17, No. 4) and “Good Health for Many: The ESCAP Region, 1950-2000”. The articles are available online at www.unescap.org/esid/psis/population/journal/index.asp.

The Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital (www.fistulahospital.org) won the award for outstanding achievement as an institution. Founded in 1974, it uniquely specializes in the treatment and care of women living with obstetric fistula, a devastating childbirth injury that damages a woman’s birth canal and leaves her incontinent. The hospital provides free medical care to over 1,200 women annually and has treated over 25,000 women. It uses a holistic approach to restore the health and dignity of fistula sufferers and offers literacy classes, physiotherapy and support to help women rejoin their communities once they are cured.
(Source: UNFPA Press Release, 26 April)