POPULATION, POVERTY, AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Saturday, 26th of November 2011

A World Bank study: ‘Although family planning programs are only one policy lever to help reduce fertility, studies find them effective.’

From the authors’ introduction:

‘What then are the best policy levers to encourage lower fertility? Many factors are associated with smaller families. Educating populations is widely perceived to create many positive externalities associated with lower fertility, such as increased wages (Duflo 2001, Schultz 2002), improved child health and schooling, increased female labor force participation, and lower fertility (Schultz 2002) especially by raising the age at first birth.1 However, these benefits are well-recognized, and much effort has been made to enhance education quality, reduce barriers to access, and incentivize parents to send their children to school with subsidies, school meals, and conditional transfer programs. Improved child survival can also help reduce fertility, but much programmatic effort is also underway on this.’

POPULATION, POVERTY, AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Full text is at http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/IW3P/IB/2011/06/30/000158349_20110630131122/Rendered/PDF/WPS5719.pdf

Abstract

There is a very large but scattered literature debating the economic implications of high fertility. This paper reviews the literature on three themes: (a) Does high fertility affect low-income countries’ prospects for economic growth and poverty reduction? (b) Does population growth exacerbate pressure on natural resources? and (c) Are family planning programs effective at lowering fertility, and should they be publicly funded?

The literature shows broad consensus that while policy and institutional settings are key in shaping the prospects of economic growth and poverty reduction, the rate of population growth also matters. Recent studies find that low dependency ratios (as fertility declines) create an opportunity for increasing productivity, savings and investment in future growth. They find that lower fertility is associated with better child health and schooling, and better health and greater labor-force participation for women. They also indicate that rapid population growth can constrain economic growth, especially in low-income countries with poor policy environments.

Population growth also exacerbates pressure on environmental common property resources. Studies highlight the deep challenges to aligning divergent interests for managing these resources. However, part of the pressure on these resources can be mitigated by reducing the rate of population growth.

Although family planning programs are only one policy lever to help reduce fertility, studies find them effective. Such programs might help especially in the Sub-Saharan African region, where high fertility and institutional constraints on economic growth combine to slow rises in living standards.

This paper is a product of the Human Development and Public Services Team, Development Research Group. It is part of a larger effort by the World Bank to provide open access to its research and make a contribution to development policy discussions around the world. Policy Research Working Papers are also posted on the Web at http://econ.worldbank.org. The author may be contacted at mdasgupta@worldbank.org, or mdasgupta@gmail.com.

Despite gains against river blindness in the region of the Americas, progress against the disease has been uneven in other areas. This article from the Pan African Medical Journal is distressing reading for eradicationists.

Best read at http://www.panafrican-med-journal.com/content/article/10/34/full/

‘The findings depict geographic regions that need immediate and careful attention of the policy makers if India needs to achieve MDG Goal 4. This

study also brings out for the first time the fact that geographic regions that were underprivileged in child nutrition were also likely to be disadvantaged in terms of infant and under-five mortality irrespective of the state to which they belong.’