The Current U.S. Administration is Contributing to Poverty & Population Growth

by William N. Ryerson

By failing to live up to the commitments made by the United States at the 1994 U.N. Conference on Population in Cairo, the Bush Administration is directly contributing to rapid growth in poverty and human suffering worldwide. The U.S. is very far from providing the funds for family planning programs in developing countries that we said we would do in Cairo.

Every year since he has been in office, President Bush has reduced the budget for family planning assistance to developing countries. In 2006, he reduced it by a further 18%. This is a colossal mistake in foreign policy.

Meanwhile, apologists for the Administration are making claims that rapid rates of population growth in developing countries somehow stimulate economic growth. The contention is that rapid rates of population growth stimulate consumerism and that the added demand fuels economic growth.

Actually, the opposite is true. The economies of many developing countries are being crippled by the fact that a high percentage of personal and national income is spent on the immediate consumption needs of food, housing and clothing—because there are too many children dependent on each working adult—leaving little income available to form investment capital.

Lack of investment capital depresses growth of productivity of industry and leads to high unemployment (which is exacerbated by rapid growth in the numbers seeking jobs). Lack of capital also contributes to a country's inability to invest in education, government, infrastructure, environmental protection and other areas that can contribute to the long-term productivity of the economy and living standards of the people.

Herman Daly, former Senior Economist at the World Bank, believes that this situation applies to developing countries worldwide.  Simply put, if the assertions by certain conservatives were true, the slow population growth countries of Europe and North America would have weak economies, while the economies of sub-Saharan Africa and the high-population-growth countries of Asia and Latin America would be robust.

The real measure of economic welfare is not gross national product or national income, but the median income on a per capita basis. Stimulating gross national product by having more and more people buying fewer and fewer necessities does not enhance economic welfare.

In the 20th century, no nation made much progress in the transition from "developing" to "developed" status until it first brought its population growth down. For example, in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, the Bahamas and Barbados, rapid economic development occurred only after each country had achieved a rate of natural increase of its population below 1.5% per year and an average number of children per woman of 2.3 or less.

Worldwide, according to a comprehensive report by Bruce Sundquist, developing nations now require about $1 trillion per year in new infrastructure development just to accommodate their population growth—a figure that is very far from being met and that is effectively impossible for these countries to generate. This explains why developed-world humanitarian aid and loans to developing nations of $56 billion per year have been ineffective in improving their infrastructure and why the infrastructure of the developing world is sagging under the demands of the equivalent of a new Iraq every four months.

As noted by Sundquist, the 48 countries identified by the U.N. as “least developed” are expected to triple their population by 2050. As a whole, the developing world is struggling to make payments of $270 billion per year on its $2.5 trillion external debt—a debt that is increasing by another $1 trillion every decade.

Massive rural to urban migration in developing countries is making the situation in large cities increasingly desperate, with growing slums that lack basic sanitation and water, let alone schools. Projections of rural to urban migration over the next 30 years show that as many as four billion people may migrate from rural areas of developing countries either to join the one billion living in urban slums or emigrating to developed nations. This is a formula for political, social and economic instability worldwide.

The developing world is so capital-starved due to its high population growth rate that allocating some portion of government budgets to reproductive health care is often extremely difficult. Both developed and developing countries would need to triple their contributions to come close to what they committed to in Cairo.

Meeting the entire need for family planning information and services of just $15.2 billion per year for several decades could reap a long-term benefit of over $1 trillion per year in reduced need for developing world infrastructure growth and would enhance the health and welfare of people worldwide. In the meantime, the Administration allocates less than 1% of the federal budget to humanitarian assistance for struggling countries. This stinginess not only hurts the people of the developing countries. Their poverty and suffering are major factors in the growing worldwide resentment toward the U.S. and its way of life.

The United States is third among countries in the total growth of its population every year, after India and China. Despite near replacement level fertility, immigration—in large part fueled by the poverty that generous family planning assistance could help to avoid —is driving growth that could cause the U.S. population to grow to 1 billion by the end of this century. U.S. population growth is a subject of great concern on two levels: global and domestic. On the global level, growth in the number of U.S. residents, who consume and pollute at a rate roughly ten times the per capita rates in developing countries, leads to a greater environmental burden by the U.S. on the rest of the world. Adding to the numbers of such mega-consumers is not in the world’s interest.

On a domestic level, U.S. population growth is leading to loss of open space, added air pollution, water depletion, increased dependence on foreign oil, and a lowering in the quality of life. In 1973, the U.S. had to import 38% of its oil. The figure now is 55%. Because of population growth, by 2025, the U.S. is projected to be dependent on foreign oil for 78% of its supply needs. The Census Department projects that U.S. population will grow from 300 million now to 420 million in 2050.

There is a major effort under way in the U.S. and worldwide to restrict access to, and use of, family planning services. Instead of providing accurate information, opponents of family planning are intentionally promoting misinformation about contraceptive safety, including rumors that condoms contain the HIV virus. Men who hear these rumors sometimes avoid the use of condoms in high-risk situations. Such misinformation campaigns are proving increasingly deadly.

Accurate information is a key ingredient of what is needed to solve the global population problem and ensure reproductive health. Communications programs that open people’s minds to new possible roles for women, the education of daughters, smaller family norms, and use of family planning methods are desperately needed throughout the world.

Data from demographic surveys worldwide make it clear that non-use of family planning is not primarily the result of lack of access to contraceptive services. Rather, the leading reasons people cite for not using family planning are fear of side effects from contraceptives, perceived or actual male opposition, religious opposition, and the belief that one does not have the moral right to determine the number or spacing of children. These cultural and informational issues can only be addressed through communication strategies that help to change societal norms.

It is, indeed, in the area of information and motivation that the greatest funding shortfall is occurring globally. And yet the behavior-change communication strategies used by organizations like Population Media Center have been demonstrated to be by far the most cost-effective means of averting births. At the same time, these strategies expand the options and rights of women and girls far beyond their current fate of early and repeated childbearing.

William Ryerson is President of Population Media Center (www.populationmedia.org), a non-profit organization that uses specially-created radio and TV soap operas, written and produced in developing countries, to change behavior around the world with regard to family size, family planning, the status of women, avoidance of AIDS, and related issues.