International Conference on Population & Development (ICPD)
Cairo, 5-13 September 1994

After vigorous debate, more than 180 countries agreed to adopt the 16-chapter ICPD Programme of Action. The 115-page document outlines a 20-year plan to promote sustainable, human-centered development and a stable population, framing the issues with broad principles and specific actions. Some 20 delegations expressed reservations about specific parts of the text.  The full-text of the Programme of Action is available on-line at http://www.undp.org/popin/icpd2.htm. 

Chapters I & II: The Preamble and the Principles set out the development and human rights context of the Programme.

The Preamble places the ICPD in global context, noting the interdependence of population and development; recent rapid population growth; the need to mobilize partnerships and international resources; and the links to agreements from other major world conferences and universal standards of human rights.

The set of 15 Principles states positions on basic issues discussed in the rest of the document. These include: the universal equality and rights of all as set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; people-centered sustainable development; gender equity; the context of population programmes; the relationship of population, resources, the environment and development; the eradication of poverty; the rights to education and to physical and mental health; support for the family; the health and development of children; the treatment of documented migrants; the right to asylum; the rights of indigenous people; and sustained economic growth that benefits a  broad social base.

Each subsequent chapter contains Bases for Action, Objectives, and Actions.

Chapter III: Interrelationships Among Population, Sustained Economic Growth and Sustainable Development:  Outlines links between the needs and acts of growing numbers of people and the finite “carrying capacity” of natural resources.

Action recommendations include: integrating population, production and consumption dynamics into sustainable development policies; investing in human resources, including education, employment and health services, particularly in needs of women and the poor; promoting socially responsive economies; and taking extra measures to end poverty in ecologically vulnerable areas.

Chapter IV: Gender Equality, Equity and Empowerment of Women: Addresses imbalances between women and men and the need to empower women, protect the girl child, and achieve gender equity.

Action recommendations include: policies and programs to empower women; promoting equal treatment and preventing the neglect and abuse of girl children; and promoting equal responsibility of men in family life, in health, communication and economics.

Chapter V: The Family, Its Roles, Rights, Composition and Structure:  Recognizes that the family, in all its forms, is the basic unit of society and that population and development policies should promote the family in all its diversity.

Action recommendations include: promoting the earning power of poorer families and greater compatibility between work and parental duties; and developing innovative policies to assist families with health, social and/or political disadvantages.

Chapter VI: Population Growth and Structure: States that countries where demographic growth outstrips economic growth face special challenges in ensuring a quality of life based on human rights and sustainable development.

Action recommendations include: integrating demographic trends with social and economic development; reducing high maternal and child mortality levels that often lead to high fertility rates; meeting the health, education, social, training and employment needs of children and youth; enhancing equity, self-reliance and support systems for elderly people, particularly women; and recognizing the perspectives of indigenous cultures and persons with disabilities and developing responsive policies and programs.

Chapter VII: Reproductive Rights and Reproductive Health: States that all couples and individuals have the right to attain the highest standard of sexual and reproductive health.

Action recommendations include: providing universal reproductive health services by 2015, including participatory programs for adolescents, men, migrants and displaced persons; seeking universal access to safe, appropriate and adequately-funded family planning programs by 2015, based in the principles of voluntary and informed choice and quality of care; helping women avoid abortion; promoting the prevention, detection and treatment of sexually-transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS; developing policies and programs that support comprehensive sexual education and services based on an improved understanding of the need for responsibility, the realities of current behavior, and the prevention of abuse, including female genital mutilation; and ensuring access to appropriate and supportive reproductive health programs and services for adolescents.

Chapter VIII: Health, Morbidity and Mortality: Focuses on international and national level commitments to increasing health and life span and improving the quality of life of all people. 

Action recommendations include: promoting strategies to reduce morbidity and mortality, to recognize the custodial role of women in health, and to reduce local and large-scale environmental health hazards; reducing high infant and child mortality rates to 35 and 45 per 1,000, respectively, and maternal mortality by half by 2015; and mobilizing to prevent and assess the impact of HIV/AIDS, protecting the rights of all those affected.

Chapter IX: Population Distribution, Urbanization and Internal Migration: In the context of human rights, outlines the need for countries to foster balanced and sustainable patterns of population distribution through sustainable development and the reduction of “push factors” related to migration, including ending all forced migration and “ethnic cleansing.”

Action recommendations include: keeping population distribution policies consistent with other development goals, policies and human rights; encouraging the growth of small-to-medium urban centers; reducing urban bias through rural development incentives, conservation and infrastructure; promoting urban development responsive to growth; maintaining consistency with the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (1949); improving conditions for the urban poor, especially women and street children; and providing displaced persons with basic social services, including health, education, and employment opportunities.

Chapter X: International Migration:  Considers documented and undocumented migrants, refugees, asylum-seekers and displaced persons, emphasizing the need to address the root causes of migration and vulnerabilities of the displaced.

Action recommendations include: addressing economic imbalances between developed and developing countries; addressing circumstances of environmental refugees; gathering sound data on migration factors; addressing discriminatory attitudes and practices; promoting integration and re-integration of the displaced; adopting sanctions for international trafficking, especially against exploitation, prostitution and coercive adoption; enhancing mechanisms for cross-border responsibility; and respecting the principle of non-refoulement, the non-forcible return of persons whose freedom is threatened. 

Chapter XI: Population, Development and Education: Focuses on the need for universal access to quality education, the relationship between population and sustainable development, and the need to enhance people’s ability to “exercise their basic right to decide freely and responsibly on the number and spacing of their children.”

Action recommendations include: achieving universal access to quality education; promoting job training, non-formal education and literacy programs; integrating reproductive health, gender sensitivity, demographic, health and environmental perspectives into existing programs as appropriate; using the media to expand culturally-appropriate knowledge and motivation in population, health and development; disseminating information on the relationships between population, consumption, production and sustainable development through databases and networks; and strengthening research about population and development issues.

Chapter XII: Technology, Research and Development: Outlines the need to collect, analyze and disseminate population, socio-economic, and reproductive health-related data.

Action recommendations include: encouraging collection and use of data; setting up databases to link categories such as population, education, environment, health, poverty, family well-being, migration and development issues, including consumption and women’s role in economic development; implementing appropriate training programs; refining research on reproductive and sexual health at social, medical and technical levels; improving program recognition of social, cultural and economic differences; applying operations research to evaluations; and investigating gender discrepancies revealed in research.

Chapter XIII: National Action: States that each country should incorporate population concerns into national development strategies, involve all sectors of society in development decisions, and mobilize and allocate resources.

Action recommendations include: working with partners to promote awareness of population and development strategies, plans, policies and programs; developing human resources, especially women as leaders; promoting experience-sharing and database networking; developing client-centered information systems; mobilizing resources through cost-recovery measures, including more involvement of the private sector, to ensure “universal availability of and access to high-quality reproductive health and family planning services”; and increasing public and development assistance spending in social sectors, including developing reliable cost estimates. 

Chapter XIV: International Cooperation: States the need for the international community to create an enabling economic environment for implementing the Programme, to develop “people-centered” population and development strategies, and to make a strong commitment to funding population and development programs.

Action recommendations include: offering technical assistance and appropriate technology transfer to reinforce national capacity-building; promoting economic policy favoring sustained economic growth; strengthening cooperation between governmental and non-governmental organizations; striving to fulfill the consensus target of .7% of GNP for overall official population and development assistance; coordinating financing and planning based on evaluation, needs assessment, and complementary programs; exploring innovative financing mechanisms and direct South-South funding; and expanding financial aid in population, reproductive, sexual health, and family planning.

Chapter XV: Partnership with the Non-Governmental Sector: Calls for greater cooperation and partnerships among all levels of government and the full range of NGOs and the private sector in program design, implementation, coordination, and evaluation.

For governments, action recommendations include: promoting partnerships with NGOs, especially women’s groups through dialogue, decisionmaking, program planning, training, outreach and other activities; and promoting partnerships with the private sector and NGOs.  For NGOs, action recommendations include: strengthening interaction with communities while joining national, regional and international debates on population and development.  For the private sector, action recommendations include: channeling financial and other appropriate support to non-profit NGOs and meeting their employees’ needs for information, education and reproductive health services. 

Chapter XVI: Follow-up to the Conference: Calls for creation of national, subregional, regional and international follow-up mechanisms to promote implementation of the Programme of Action through appropriate, coordinated and specific policies and programs.

Action recommendations include: prioritizing political leadership and commitment, dissemination, spending levels, accountability, multi-disciplinary expertise and evaluation, and increasing efficiency in U.N. and aid groups.  The ICPD made a global commitment to mobilize $17 billion annually by the year 2000 and over $21 billion by 2015 for population and reproductive health programs. So far, less than $10 billion per year is being directed to these programs, four-fifths of it from developing countries.  International assistance remains well below the $5.7 billion per year that the ICPD agreed would be required by 2000.

Sources: Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development; Document/Conference Summary, Population Communications International; Chapter Summaries, International Women’s Health Coalition; State of World Population 1998, United Nations Population Fund.

March 2000

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