New estimates from the UN Population Division project that "world population, which reached 6.1 billion in mid-2000, [will] grow to 9.3 billion by 2050," according to the Feb. 28 New York Times. The story noted that "alone among the industrial countries, the United States will continue to grow markedly in population during the next half century," and that "the world is witnessing a huge population shift to the third world, where poverty and limited resources are already hampering development and propelling migration within and between countries." link

InterPress Service reported Feb. 28 that "globally, the number of older persons (60 or over) will nearly triple, increasing from the current figure of 606 million to nearly 2 billion by 2050," according to the UN projections, leading countries to "reconfigure their policies on pensions, social security, health care and other services for the elderly." The Associated Press also detailed the UN projections in a Feb. 28 story.

[Coverage from the report also appeared on National Public Radios' Morning Edition link

BUSH ADMINISTRATION ACTIONS ON USAID

USA Today reported Feb. 20 that "the Bush administration is exploring a proposal to increase U.S. foreign aid sharply--but only if it is delivered overseas through 'faith-based' and other private relief organizations." The plan is endorsed by Sen. Jesse Helms (R-NC), who "wants to abolish the U.S. Agency for International Development...and funnel the bulk of U.S. assistance through non-governmental groups." link

A number of outlets reported that President Bush nominated Andrew Natsios, chair of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, as administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), including the Associated Press, CNN and United Press International Feb. 21, and the Boston Globe, Boston Herald and Agence France Presse Feb. 22. The Globe reported that "the selection of Natsios, a policy thinker who has written extensively on famine, was interpreted as a sign that Bush is serious about keeping AID in its current form."

OTHER GLOBAL POPULATION COVERAGE

A cover story headlined "Wanted: More Babies" in the March/April Foreign Policy (available on Feb. newsstands) reported that "after decades of struggling to contain the global population explosion that emerged from the healthcare revolution of the 20th century, the world confronts an unfamiliar crisis: rapidly decreasing birthrates and declining life spans that might set back the progress of human development." link

The Feb. 22 Christian Science Monitor reported on Russia's declining population, which by some estimates "could dip to 50 million to 60 million people by 2075" from its current 156 million. The article states that "it is dawning on the world that among the tremendous changes in Russia since the disintegration of the Soviet Union, population decline is perhaps the greatest." link

By contrast, a number of media outlets continued to report on India's census effort, the largest in the nation's history, including the Associated Press, Christian Science Monitor, National Public Radio's Morning Edition, Washington Post, Washington Times and Agence France Presse.

The Associated Press reported Feb. 28 that the "head count of [India's] billion-plus citizens" included questions on "the number of people in each household, details about their literacy levels, gender, religious beliefs, caste, employment, migration history and fertility." link

A Feb. 23 Christian Science Monitor article noted that India's "enumerators will have visited nearly 20 million households in around 650,000 villages and 5,500 towns and cities," making it "a bigger exercise than even China's census taken in November." It noted that even more significant than the actual numbers is the fact that the census "will suggest how much progress [India has] made as a country on social factors, such as the structure of the workforce, or the improvement of the status of women in society."

The Feb. 26 Washington Post noted that "the obstacles to obtaining an accurate picture of the country are enormous" because of the "suspicion" faced by census officials and the challenges of counting "people who have no formal address" and where "40 percent of [the] population is illiterate" and "women are often reluctant to reveal information they feel may raise questions, such as being married as young adolescents or having a child die after birth." link

A Feb. 20 Washington Times article detailed problems with the census, including "accusations of fraud and political manipulation," particularly regarding questions about religious and caste affiliation.

Other outlets reported on problems in counting sex workers and on violence surrounding census efforts in India's northeastern Meghalaya state.

INTERNATIONAL FAMILY PLANNING AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH

The Feb. 26 New York Times reported that "the poverty and powerlessness of women in Africa and Asia are combining to make them increasingly vulnerable to AIDS, which some research groups are now calling a women's disease." The story noted that this issue "rekindles debates about women's rights in personal relationships, including whether they are able to insist on the use of condoms, an issue that dominated the 1994 United Nations population conference in Cairo and the international conference on women the following year in Beijing." link

BusinessWorld (Philippines) reported Feb. 16 that the "Macapagal-Arroyo administration will push for new family planning techniques, responsible parenthood and a massive education campaign to promote a 'humane' reproductive health program in the country." Her speech, "conscious of the influential Roman Catholic Church's stand against artificial birth control methods...noted her administration's population policies will respect the religious beliefs of couples."

In Egypt, the "Ministry of Health has with UN and U.S. money begun extensive education campaigns [against female genital mutilation], also pushing to get the voices of anti-FGM activists into the mainstream media," according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Feb. 26. Egyptian health officials "hope to influence the FGM battle in the trenches of both remote villages and in Egypt's conservative, male-dominated Parliament, which has yet even to consider passing a law banning the practice outright." link

Agence France Presse reported Feb. 26 that the U.S. State Department's annual report on human rights worldwide "paints [a] grim Africa human rights picture," noting that "in many parts of Africa, female genital mutilation continued to damage the physical and psychological health of women and girls."

The latest Kenyan Demographic and Health survey shows that "a sharp increase in maternal and neo-natal death rates in the past five years," according to the Feb. 23 Daily Nation (Kenya). That paper also reported Feb. 24 that teenage pregnancies "accounted for almost half of the maternity cases handled in government hospitals" in Kenya. link

NEWS ABOUT INTERNATIONAL ABORTION TRENDS

"An entrenched 'abortion culture' in Russia and Eastern Europe has outlived the collapse of communism by more than a decade," according to the International Herald Tribune Feb. 16, leading to an "abortion rate as a percentage of live births [that] remains well above the West European average." The high rates are attributed to "chronic shortages and high costs [that] render contraception difficult to access and thus effectively unavailable to the majority of women in Central and Eastern Europe," according to data from the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy. link

REPORTING ON THE GLOBAL GAG RULE

U.S. outlets continued to report on the Jan. 22 "global gag rule" restriction imposed by President Bush that prohibits international family planning groups receiving U.S. funds from abortion-related lobbying or counseling, or performing abortion services with their own funds. The Feb. 28 Baltimore Sun reported on the effects of the ban on Planned Parenthood of South Africa, which will lose "about $650,000 it receives directly and indirectly from the United States," affecting programs including HIV/AIDS prevention and education. link

Other outlets reported on the introduction of the Global Democracy Promotion Act of 2001, which seeks to overturn the gag rule. These included the Feb. 16 Los Angeles Times and New York Times, and the Feb. 20 edition of the Minnesota Public Radio program Marketplace. The Los Angeles Times reported that the legislation "has a good chance of passing in the Senate, which historically has been more supportive of family planning and abortion rights," but "its prospects are more uncertain in the House, where the Republican majority could use parliamentary procedures to thwart it."

OPINIONS AND EDITORIALS

Columnist Robert J. Samuelson argued in the Feb. 28 Washington Post that "global aging...a specter that stalks most advanced societies," will "profoundly influence the world economy, the future of democracy and relations between nations with declining populations (generally richer countries) and those with expanding population (generally poorer countries)." link

Several newspapers printed opinion pieces and letters on President Bush's reinstatement of the global gag rule on international family planning organizations. A commentary by Africa Fund Executive Director Salih Booker in the Feb. 26 Nation argued that the President has "in effect declared war on Africa and Africans...[with his] first foreign policy action...to defund international public health and family planning services."

The Roanoke Times & World Service printed a Feb. 18 op-ed by Virginia Tech Professor Theodore D. Fuller that argued against Bush's policy, stating "it seems clear that if it is more difficult to obtain contraceptives, there will be more unwanted pregnancies, and therefore not only more births but also more abortions, more maternal mortality and more infant mortality."

Acting USAID Administrator Donald Pressley responded to a Washington Times commentary criticizing his agency in a Feb. 18 letter, in which he argued that USAID "is, in fact, a central instrument of U.S. national security, advancing U.S. foreign policy in 114 countries, reducing the potential for conflict and improving the quality of life for millions."