LONDON, Dec 3 (AFP) - Developing countries should invest in women and family planning if they want to seize an opportunity to bolster economic growth by lowering fertility rates, the authors of a new UN report said Tuesday.
The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) report urged developing countries to take advantage of a "demographic window" opened by a decreasing number of younger children and older people in their populations.
"The point is that this is a one time thing. This is a one generation affair. It happens once in a country's history," report editor Alex Marshall told a London news conference.
"The countries of South Asia, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka: they have this opportunity, if they make those necessary investments -- investing in women is what it comes down to -- we can do this now," he said.
UNFPA provides six billion dollars (euros) a year to reproductive health programmes, which include care for pregnant women and newborn babies, prevention of sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS, as well as family planning.
The report "People, Poverty and Possibilities" argued that addressing population concerns was crucial to meeting the UN's Millennium Summit goals of halving global poverty and arresting the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015.
"Half of the world, that is more than three billion people, live on less than two dollars a day," said UNFPA chief Thoraya Obaid.
"The report attempts to grasp the reality behind these figures. It shows that poverty is more than just an economic matter. Poverty is also about insecurity and exclusion," she said.
Women in developing countries are worst affected by poverty, Obaid said, pointing out that 500,000 women worldwide die each year as a consequence of pregnancy.
"For poor women in poor countries the biggest single threat to their health is illness or injury as a result of pregnancy," she said. "When a mother dies, the family often breaks up."
Developing countries that have invested in family planning, smaller families and slower population growth have achieved higher productivity, more savings and more productive investment, the UNFPA chief said.
The keys to further success are "universal health care, including reproductive health information and services, universal education, moves towards women in parliament, and gender equality," Obaid said.
"These initiatives enable choice and experience shows that choice invariably leads to lower fertility, smaller families, and therefore slower population growth," she said.
Projections by the UN Population Division -- which have proved remarkably accurate in the past -- show the world's population rising from just over six billion today to 9.3 billion by mid-century, almost entirely due to demographic growth in the poorest countries.
"The big question for national leaders, legislators, policy experts and decision-makers is whether to make the necessary changes in policy and practice in the next decade, and whether the international community will make the necessary efforts to help them succeed," the UNFPA report said.
The "demographic window" opened by falling fertility offered a once-only opportunity for economic growth, it explained.
Countries in South Asia are to reach their peak ratio of workers to dependents between 2015 and 2025, while those in Latin America will do so between 2020 and 2030, it said.
In sub-Saharan Africa, fertility is so high that half the population is below the age of 17.6 years, and the worker-dependents ratio is lower today than it was in 1950, the report said.
Though some countries in Africa have begun their demographic transition, "progress will depend on the availability of reproductive health services including family planning," it said.
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