Progress in reducing rapid rates of population growth and high levels of fertility is one of the success stories of the late twentieth century. This book relates the development and implementation of national and international approaches to family-planning and the population question from the 1960s to the present. It describes the evolution of national population policies by governments - their aims, successes and shortcomings - as well as the subsequent emergence of international agencies which sought to reinforce and underpin these commitments. The study draws heavily on documents, and carefully assesses the achievements of the 1974 Bucharest World Population Conference, the 1984 International Conference on Population in Mexico and the major international initiatives that followed them, up to the 1992 UN Conference on the Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro. Evolving perceptions and prospects for a new international consensus on population are also examined, together with preparations for the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo in 1994. The text is supplemented by a wealth of demographic tables and graphs.

Foreword by Dr. Nafis Sadik, Executive Director, UN Population Fund; Secretary General, International Conference on Population and Development