Highlights of the 2003 ESCAP Population Data Sheet

Increasing at the rate of 1.2 per cent per annum, the total population of the region stood at 3.9 billion in 2003 and is expected to reach 4.7 billion in 2025. The slowing of the population growth rate is mainly due to a sharp decline in the total fertility rate, which is currently estimated at 2.4 children per woman. The ESCAP region has also witnessed a substantial reduction in the infant mortality rate, dropping at 52 deaths per 1,000 live births, down from 62 per 1,000 live births a decade ago. There has been a corresponding rise in the expectation of life at birth, reaching 66 years for males and 70 years for females.

Although the total fertility rate for the ESCAP region stands at 2.4 children per woman, there is a considerable difference in the rates observed at the subregional level. The total fertility rates are lowest in North and Central Asia (1.5 children per woman) and East and North-East Asia (1.8 children per woman), while South and South-West Asia exhibits relatively high fertility at 3.2 children per woman. In South-East Asia and in the Pacific, the total fertility rates are 2.5 and 2.3, respectively.

Adolescent fertility, that is, the fertility rate of women aged 15-19 has also dropped significantly in the Asian and Pacific region, with the regional average standing now at 36 births per 1,000 women aged 15-19. There is, however, a great disparity in adolescent fertility among countries in the region. For instance, with the exception of Mongolia, all countries in East and North-East Asia, including Singapore in South-East Asia have reduced the adolescent fertility rate to below 8 per 1,000 women. By contrast, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Nepal exhibited an adolescent fertility rate of over 100 per 1,000 women.

Great disparity in the average life span can be seen in the ESCAP region. Japan and Hong Kong, China have the highest life expectancy at birth for females at 85 years. Other populations whose female life expectancies at birth are 80 years and above are Australia; Macao, China; New Zealand; the Republic of Korea; and Singapore. On the other hand, the average life span of females are 65 years or lower in such countries as Cambodia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Myanmar in South-Asia; Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Pakistan in South and South-West Asia; and Nauru and Papua New Guinea in the Pacific.

One of the implications of the demographic transition that the region is currently undergoing (owing to a decline in fertility and mortality) is population ageing. In the ESCAP region as a whole, the proportion of population aged 65 years and over has reached 6 per cent. The proportion of older persons is much higher at 11 per cent in North and Central Asia, 10 per cent in the Pacific and 8 per cent in East and North-East Asia. Japan is the most aged country, with 19 per cent of its population representing the age groups 65 years and over. As a result of the improved health conditions, the number of older persons is increasing annually at the rate of 2.8 per cent, that is more than twice as high as the growth rate of the total population.

A significant feature of the demographic dynamics of the Asian and Pacific region is the shifting population age structure. As a consequence of the continuous decline in fertility and the increase in longevity, the proportion of population under age 15 has been falling while the proportion of population in the age group 65 years and over has been rising; eventually they will virtually converge in the year 2050.

The ESCAP region is still predominantly rural with only two fifths of the population living in urban areas. However, the region is witnessing a faster growth in urban population that is currently growing at the rate of 2.4 per cent per year (twice as high as the total population growth rate). As a result, the proportion of urban population of the Asian and Pacific region is projected to reach 63 per cent in 2025. The percentage of urban population is highest in the Pacific (74 per cent) followed by 63 per cent in North and Central Asia. By contrast, the proportion of urban population is lowest in South and South-West Asia (31 per cent).

Copies of the Data Sheet are available on request from the Chief, ESCAP, Emerging Social Issues Division, United Nations Building, Rajdamnern Avenue, Bangkok 10200, Thailand. It will soon be available at http://www.unescap.org/pop/data_sheet/2003/index.htm

International Migration Report 2002 now available online

The first part of the Report contains an extensive overview of the subject, including methodological issues, major substantive findings, recent views of Governments and documents from ongoing consideration of international migration issues by the United Nations General Assembly. The second part of the Report contains country profiles for every country in the world with respect to migration levels and trends (1990-2000) as well as selected policy indicators.

This Report complements the more succinct wall-chart International Migration 2002 released in October last year, which is also available on the above-mentioned web site.

International Institute for Population Sciences: Admission open

1. Diploma in Population Studies
2. Master of Population Studies - through correspondence
3. Master of Philosophy in Population Studies
4. Doctor of Philosophy
5. Short-term Training Programmes in Population Studies on demand from Governmental and Non-governmental Organizations.

Formerly known as Demographic Training and Research Centre, IIPS was established at Mumbai in July 1956 to serve as the regional institute for training and research in population studies for countries of the Asian and Pacific region.

The Institute was established to prepare students for administrative, teaching, research and consultative careers in the field of population. Over the years, the Institute has helped in building a nucleus of persons in various countries of the region, who now occupy key positions in the field in Government departments and universities, as well as international organizations. Researches on a variety of topics related to population studies are being conducted at the Institute. In addition, IIPS provides consultancy services to Governmental and Non-governmental Organizations on population related issues.

The Institute has hostel facilities with self-contained and furnished rooms. It is also equipped with computer facilities and with an excellent library.

For more information, visit http://www.iipsindia.org

Interested persons may send their applications to the Director, through the sponsoring agencies by 30 May 2003.

IIPS, Govandi Station Road, Deonar, Mumbai 400 088, India, e-mail: diriips@bom8.vsnl.net.in

WORLD SUMMIT ON INFORMATION SOCIETY--The second Preparatory Committee concludes and outlines draft Action Plan

The two-week meeting that took place in the Swiss city from 17 to 28 February concluded with two working documents for a draft Declaration and Action Plan. The results from the meeting (the second in a long series of preparatory conferences) lay the groundwork for the upcoming summit on information and communication technologies (ICTs).

The two documents focus on ways to bridge the digital divide between developed and developing nations, created by an explosion of ICTs during the past two decades. They support the participants’ collective belief in developing new and innovative partnerships between all sectors to close the gap between the information “haves” and “have nots”.

“The enthusiastic participation of more than 1,500 participants is reflected in the comprehensive nature of the work produced, and in their collective belief in developing new and innovative partnerships between Member States, civil society and the business sector in order to bridge the divide”, commented Mr. Yoshio Utsumi, Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a worldwide organization responsible for setting global telecommunications standards that worked with the UN to bring together the most influential representatives of Government and the telecommunications industries for the two-week meeting. “However, to achieve the vision of the information society we’ve outlined, we need to do more work as well as gain the support and political will of the leaders of the world”.

The second preparatory committee attracted the participation of two world leaders, President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal and President Ion Iliescu of Romania, who view the Summit as a historic opportunity to place the potential of ICTs at the service of humanity.

The Senegalese President, a prominent voice on the African continent of the need to bridge the digital divide stated, “we need digital solidarity, perhaps founded on a digital charter by which economies higher up on the ICT development scale would be bound to help those at the lower end”. He added that, “Knowledge moves in two directions, and the wisdom, colour, joy and warmth of the south can also be beamed at the speed of light to the rest of the world”.

President Ion Iliescu of Romania, told participants that “the information society increases our dependency on technology: that is why establishing a suitable framework will be of key importance”. He added “the Internet should play a humanizing role, creating a more democratic and equitable society on a worldwide scale”.

Mr. Adama Samassekou, of Mali, the President of the Preparatory Committee remarked: “During these past two weeks, we have worked together to construct a new society, the information society, in which the digital divide will be transformed into digital opportunities built on shared knowledge”. Mr. Samassekou was of the opinion that one of the most important achievements of the sessions was the creation of the Civil Society Bureau, which will represent some 1,200 groups accredited for the Summit.

The draft Declaration proposes that confidence, trust and security are also essential to the full functioning of this information society and calls for guarantees to be provided to users of media, communication and information networks against cybercrime and child pornography as well as for the protection of privacy and confidentiality. The information society envisaged is one that reduces poverty and creates wealth to satisfy the basic needs and rights of all peoples. It states that without the widespread and innovative use of ICTs, the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) may prove impossible to attain.

The proposed Action Plan, taking into account the different levels of technological development around the world, outlines “flexible” solutions for the Summit and provides benchmarks that could be used as a reference framework, including that all villages be connected by the year 2010, with a community access point by 2015. It also targets that 90 per cent of the world’s population be within wireless coverage by 2010 and 100 per cent by 2015.

The draft Plan identifies and outlines issues for consideration by the Summit, such as “Information and communication infrastructure: financing and investment, affordability, development and sustainability”; “Access to information and knowledge”; “Enabling environment”; among many others.

The draft Declaration and Action Plan will be discussed at the third preparatory meeting in Geneva, scheduled from 15 to 26 September. The first phase of the World Summit will be held in Geneva from 10 to 12 December 2003. The seconf phase will take place in Tunis from 16 to 18 November 2005.

(Sources: ITU Press Release, 28 February 2003; United Nations News Service, 3 March 2003)

Asian ICT Initiative to Combat HIV/AIDS

UNESCO is also backing the initiative, which will target high-risk behaviour, trafficking in girls and women and drug abuse as factors contributing to the spread of HIV. About 200 teachers, health workers and multimedia providers are to be trained in preventive education, while learning materials are to be developed at provincial resource centers. Furthermore, about 8,000 youths aged 13-24 are to be targeted in high-risk cross-border zones.

The Bank is providing a $1 million grant for the $1.85 million project, while the ministers' organization is providing $431,000 and UNESCO $317,000. The five countries are contributing about $100,000 according to ADB press release, 7 March.

(Source: UNWire 10 March 2003)

WORLD SUMMIT ON INFORMATION SOCIETY -- Plan to bridge 'digital divide' available for online comments

In a pioneering bid to energize local-level action to help shape an international blueprint for closing the gap between information "haves and have nots," the results of the second meeting of the preparatory committee for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) are now available on the Internet at wsis.ap@itu.int. The two-phase World Summit will be held in Geneva from 10 to12 December, and in Tunis from16 to18 November 2005.

The United Nations-guided committee and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the lead agency organizing the WSIS, are encouraging ordinary folks worldwide to log on and make observations and comments on the basic working documents - a draft plan of action and declaration - approved in late February in Geneva. Replies received by 31 May will be included in a reference text highlighting where public contributions might be included in the documents for the Summit.

The ITU - a worldwide organization responsible for setting global telecommunications standards - worked with the United Nations to bring together over 1,500 of the most influential representatives of Government and the telecommunications industries for the second preparatory meeting. A compelling international strategy emerged which may, with the help of citizens and local communities, ensure equal access by both developed and developing countries to the potential of new communication technologies (ICTs).

The declaration and plan of action available on the ITU web site promote innovative ideas such as a more humanizing role for the Internet and creating a "digital charter" by which economies higher up on the ICT development scale would be bound to help those at the lower end. The information society is seen as inclusive, where all persons, regardless of frontiers, can utilize and share knowledge in any media. The essential elements for creating such a society include a respect for human rights and civil liberties, and the existence of an independent communications media. The draft declaration and action plan will be discussed at the next preparatory meeting in Geneva, scheduled for 15 to 26 September 2003.

(Source: UN News Center, 27 March 2003)

United Nations Bibliographic Information System Thesaurus -- Enhanced version now available on Internet

The newly revised fourth edition of the UNBIS Thesaurus may be accessed directly at http://lib-thesaurus.un.org or by selecting the link on the Library’s home page http://www.un.org/Depts/dhl

The multilingual UNBIS Thesaurus has a user-friendly interface with enhanced search features. It is fully electronic and available in the six official United Nations languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. It is the first online database to be available in all the official languages of the United Nations.

The Thesaurus is the authoritative taxonomy used by major United Nations libraries for subject analysis, as well as for subject searches in the United Nations Bibliographic Information System (UNBISnet) and the United Nations Official Document System (ODS). The terms included are meant to reflect accurately, clearly, concisely and with a sufficient degree of specificity, matters of importance and interest to the United Nations. The database is multidisciplinary in scope, reflecting the Organization’s wide-ranging concerns.

The UNBIS Thesaurus is continuously being expanded and updated. New terms are proposed, as needed, to reflect the concerns of the United Nations; they may be used provisionally until, after discussion and evaluation, they are officially adopted and rendered in the six official languages.

Members of the Asia-Pacific POPIN who make use of the database are encouraged to send comments and suggestions to the Dag Hammarskjöld Library Webmaster, dhl_www@un.org, so that the site can be continually improved in response to users’ needs.

Summer Seminar on Population

The Thirty-Fourth Summer Seminar of Population organized by East-West Center, to be held from 19 May to 18 June 2003 in Honolulu, Hawaii, will consist of three workshops. The first workshop will be dedicated to the topic of “Evaluating the Impact of Reproductive Health Programmes”, the second will focus on “Population Ageing in Asia and the Pacific: The Challenge for Healthcare Systems”, and the third on “Communicating Population and Health Research to Policy Makers”.

East-West Center is presently recruiting some 50 participants from Asia, the Pacific and the United States of America, who either hold appointments with universities, government agencies or private organizations involved in relevant research or planning, or are graduate students with interests relating directly to a workshop topic.

Applicants will need to secure necessary funding. An applicant’s home institution may be able to provide support out of its own training funds and other resources, or to suggest other possible sources of assistance. Applicants need to complete all the enclosed forms and mail them to Honolulu as soon as possible, while at the same time securing funding to support their participation.

They may need to send in the application materials before funding has been secured in order to meet the application deadline of February 8, 2003.

For more information about the content of a workshop or about the application and funding procedures, email at kuramotj@EastWestCenter.org or fax at (808)944-7490. You can also visit the website http://www.EastWestCenter.org

WORLD SUMMIT ON INFORMATION SOCIETY

Wrapping up a three-day regional preparatory meeting (from 13 to 15 January) ahead of the World Summit on the Information Society which begins this December, 600 participants adopted a declaration saying that high-quality access to technology "has great potential to help better deliver essential services required to meet basic human needs". The Tokyo declaration adds that measures against cyber crime "must respect the sovereignty of nations and maintain respect for the constitutional and other rights of all persons, including freedom of expression".

The declaration will be submitted as the Asian and the Pacific region’s input to the World Summit on the Information Society process.

Kim Hak-Su, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) that co-organized the regional conference together with the Japanese Government and other collaborators, acknowledged that more work is needed. "The Tokyo Declaration is directional", he said. "We need more meetings".

In his keynote address, Mr. Kim underscored that the benefits of the information society had been largely confined to the industrialized world. “The developing countries of the Asia-Pacific region, and especially the least developed, land locked and island developing countries, as well as the economies in transition, account for a small fraction of the global digital economy. Concerns about such disparities need to be addressed urgently in order to overcome the digital divide”, he said. He continued: “A diversity of efforts is essential as there are no universal solutions to difficult regional, national and local conditions and needs”.

Mr. Kim concluded: “This conference has to be a new point of departure for the future of the region. I sincerely believe that this Forum will bring together our collective wisdom to open new perspective based on Information and Communication Technologies and harness the full potential of the technology to create a better future for the millions who live in Asia and the Pacific”.

Robert Francis Garcia of the Asian South Pacific Bureau of Adult Education called the Tokyo Declaration "a compromise document" that aimed more to foster economic growth than ensure human rights. "It is silent on certain security issues", he said. "It doesn't have a mention of the issue of censorship". In addition, non-governmental groups commended the Conference for including grass-roots views in discussions, but expressed outrage over China's opposition to the participation of Taiwanese groups, criticizing it as unneeded government intervention.

Yoshio Utsumi, secretary general of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), told delegates that while information and communication technologies can remove the boundaries that keep humanity apart, many people in the world are deprived of access to information and to the tools for using it.

According to the ITU, 80 per cent of the 500 million Internet users worldwide are in the developed world, and two out of every five people in developed countries have access to this technology while only one in 50 has access in developing countries.

Addressing delegates to the preparatory meeting -- the third of six regional meetings scheduled ahead of December's United Nations summit -- Utsumi said, "until we address the injustices of this 'digital divide,' we cannot embrace the promise of cyberspace with a clear conscience".

The first phase of the World Summit will take place in Geneva hosted by the Government of Switzerland from 10 to 12 December 2003. It will address the broad range of themes concerning the Information Society and adopt a Declaration of Principles and plan of action, addressing the whole range of issues related to the Information Society. The second phase of the Summit will take place in Tunis hosted by the Government of Tunisia in 2005. Development themes will be a key focus in this phase and it will assess progress that has been made and adopt any further plan of action to be taken.

(Sources: Development Gateway, 17 January 2003; Digital Divide, 20 January 2003)

Pacific Nations Agree to Contraceptive Plan

Marianne Haselgrave, director of the Commonwealth Medical Association Trust, which initiated the meeting, said the plan to be presented to the Pacific Ministers' meeting in Tonga in March, was a bold effort to meet the reproductive health needs of the region.

Issues to be addressed by the plan included ensuring the right supplies were in the right place at the right time, which meant better planning would be needed.

Ministers of health from the Cook Islands, Fiji, Vanuatu, Kiribati and Ministry representatives from Nuie, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Tuvalu also agreed the spread of HIV/AIDS in the Pacific must be urgently addressed.

The plan calls on participating governments to acknowledge the importance of the issue and put in place a separate budget for reproductive health.

United Nations Population Fund representative Catherine Shevlin Pierce said previously the region faced a critical shortage of condoms that threatened its status as one of the least affected by HIV/AIDS, after the United States withdrew funding form UNFPA last year.

(Source: New Zealand Press Association, 24 January, via news@ippf.org)

Indonesian family planner warns of 400 million population by 2053

Indonesia's family planning board has warned that the population could double over the next 50 years to more than 400 million people if the government's contraceptives for the poor programme is neglected.

National Family Planning Board (BKKBN) chairwoman Yaumil Achir warned that widespread poverty and budget constraints were undermining the Government's previous success in curbing population growth in Indonesia, which already ranks as the world's fourth most populous country with an estimated 215 million people.

The Indonesian Government has allocated a budget of 120 billion rupiah (13.3 million dollars) this year to provide poor couples with contraceptives, but Achir said that BKKBN needed at least 223 billion rupiah (24.8 million) per year to meet the needs of the poor.

An estimated 57 per cent of Indonesia's total population in 2002 lived on less than 2 dollars a day.

"Uncontrolled population growth will place a heavy burden on national development," Achir warned.

Indonesia's family planning programme has succeeded in reducing the annual population growth from more than 2 per cent per year prior to 1990 to 1.47 per cent.

(Source: Deutsche Presse-Agentur, 30 January, via news@ippf.org)

Handy inventories

In one of its latest issues, the Reproductive Health Gateway Newsletter has released an inventory of the various reproductive health related publications (newsletters, magazines and journals) available free of charge on the web.

The page provides links to full-text versions of the different publications, by alphabetical order, from the Adapting to Change newsletter of the World Bank Institute, to the American Medical Association JAMA. It also introduces other sites with links to full-text journals such as Free Medical Journals Online and UNESCO Social Science Online Periodicals.

To view the page online, go to: http://www.rhgateway.org/newsletters.html

Asia-Pacific Conference on Reproductive and Sexual Health

The Second Asia-Pacific Conference on Reproductive and Sexual Health (APCRSH) will be held in Bangkok from 6 to 10 October 2003.

The Conference is organized jointly by Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities of Mahidol University, Faculty of Nursing of Chiang Mai University, and the Raks Thai Foundation.

The chosen theme "Moving Into Action: Realizing Reproductive and Sexual Health and Rights in the Asia-Pacific Region" indicates the need to link research and advocacy with implementation to improve the reproductive and sexual welfare of the people in the region. The conference also aims at strengthening and expanding networks of stakeholders in the region and move them from awareness about equity into undertaking action. It also hopes to provide impetus for a regional call to action that will result in concrete pragmatic actions involving policy makers, civil society, activists, government, and private entities.

The plenary and parallel sessions will revolve around the following sub-themes:

• Gender Approach to Reproductive and Sexual Health: From Rhetoric to Action

• Sexual and Reproductive Rights

• Sexuality : Meanings, Values, and Behaviors

• The Changing Context of Sexual and Reproductive Health

• Comprehensive Sexual and Reproductive Health Services/Programmes

Interested individuals who would like to present a paper at the conference should submit an abstract on any of the foregoing topics. Those who are interested to organize a session should prepare a session abstract.

Abstract form and guidelines including other details are available at the conference web site, http://www.apcrsh.com

The deadline for abstract submission is 15 March 2003.

New Web Portal on Gender and HIV/AIDS

Globally, 50 per cent of adults living with HIV/AIDS are women. The epidemic disproportionately affects women and adolescent girls who are socially, culturally, biologically and economically more vulnerable, and who shoulder the burden of caring for the sick and dying.

UNIFEM’s Executive Director, Noeleen Heyzer, in announcing the launch of the portal, stressed the importance of placing gender equality at the very core of the fight against HIV/AIDS. "We must do all we can to loosen and remove the grip of this terrible disease. I believe that one of the most powerful HIV vaccines available today is women’s empowerment. By bringing knowledge and information to the global community, we are able to empower women. Women’s empowerment is the key to reversing the epidemic".

Peter Piot, UNAIDS Executive Director, welcomed the creation of the web portal. "Women make up half the world’s HIV epidemic, but bear a much higher proportion of its burden. They continue to provide most of the care for families and children, but are often last in line to receive life-saving care and information for themselves. This online resource center is a practical step forward by UNIFEM and UNAIDS together, designed to help improve the support for the millions of women around the world living with HIV and affected by the epidemic," he said.

The web portal will be a constantly evolving, multi-dimensional and dynamic virtual space that promotes understanding,knowledge-sharing, and action on HIV/AIDS as a gender and human rights issue. User-friendly, informative and interactive, the site offers research, training materials, surveys, advocacy tools, current news and opinion pieces by leading experts, and women’s stories from the field. Plans are also underway to house an experts database, which will serve as a technical and networking vehicle for national and global gender and HIV/AIDS specialists.

The gender and HIV/AIDS web portal is available at http://www.GenderandAIDS.org