World Population Awareness

Food for 9 Billion: Turning the Population Tide in the Philippines

This story also appeared on PBS NEWSHOUR. A related story can be found on American Public Media's Marketplace.

Fishing villages near the Danajon Double Barrier Reef off of Bohol Island in the southern Philippines are embracing birth control for the first time, not just as a means to plan their families but as a path to long-term food security, ensuring that future generations enjoy the same abundance of fish. The area is one of the richest marine biodiversity hot spots in the world. More than a million people depend on these fishing grounds for their main source of protein and livelihoods. As the population of this area has nearly tripled in the last three decades, the effect on the reef has been devastating.

Illegal fishing has become rampant. Many use dynamite or cyanide, indiscriminately killing everything within their reach.

The shift to smaller families in the rural fishing village Humayhumay is already paying dividends. Fishermen have created a marine preserve to help revive fish stocks. With smaller families, thinking about future generations is a luxury fishermen can afford.

Every year the Philippines, now with 100 million people, adds about 2 million more mouths to feed and isn't expected to stabilize its population until 2080, at 200 million. The country is already beyond its carrying capacity.

Jason Bostero: Family planning is helpful because if you control the number of your children, you don't need as many fish to support your family. If you have many children, it's difficult to support them." .. "My income is just right to feed us three times a day. It's really, really different when you have a small family."

Crisna Bostero: "In my case, we were really hard up before. Sometimes, we would only eat once a day because we were so poor. We couldn't go to school. I did not finish my school because there were just so many of us."

A community-based family planning programs has made birth control options like the pill accessible and affordable - at about 70 cents a month. Distributors are able to sell pills and condoms anytime. They are as easy as buying soft drinks or matches.

PATH Foundation Philippines, a group funded mostly through USAID, has made this possible, placing its emphasis on local partners and bringing access to the people. In just six years since the program was first established here, family sizes have dropped from as many as 12 children to a maximum of about four today.

The program shows how closely tied family planning is with environmental conservation and putting food on the table.

Jason and Crisna Bostero, both practicing Catholics, don't see a conflict between their religious beliefs and family planning. For them, it's about something much more immediate, like what kind of future they're going to pass on to their two children. " I don't want them to be like us, just to fish the sea, just to farm the land. This is not an easy way to earn a living."

Outside of Humayhumay, where birth control remains largely out of reach, the struggle to put food on the table from one day to the next dominates life. People have to collect government assistance checks for food.

Countries like Thailand and Indonesia have largely avoided this scene, thanks to state-sponsored family planning programs. But Congressman Walden Bello says in the Philippines, any efforts to do the same have faced stiff resistance.

The country is 80% Catholic and the Catholic church leadership opposes any form of artificial contraception and has rallied for a decade against a reproductive health bill in Congress that would guarantee universal access to birth control. Recently, it even threatened the president with excommunication for supporting the bill.

Filipino Archbishop Emeritus Oscar Cruz says "if you have more mouths to feed, then produce more food to eat! Not the other way around."

But trying to produce more food tests the limits of ecosystems, both on land and sea. Today, the Philippines imports more rice than any other nation on the planet. And according to the World Bank, every major species of fish here shows signs of severe overfishing.

Technological advances to boost the food supply have not kept pace with the Philippine's surging population growth.

More than half of all pregnancies in the Philippines are unintended, according to the Guttmacher Instititute.

The future of the people in the Philippines could easily be overwhelmed by outside forces, in a world that's projected to have 9 billion mouths to feed by the middle of the century.

Africa: Miracle Or Malthus?

African is the only continent that is estimated to double in size, reaching 2 billion people by 2045 at current rates. Liberia and Niger are expected to double in size in less than 20 years—a stunning increase that is causing forecasts of Malthusian disaster for countries that cannot feed themselves.

Yet in north Africa families of two are the norm. In southern Africa, families of three prevail. Big cities, such as Zambia's Lusaka and Congo's Kinshasa, have fertility rates below four; the rate in Ethiopia's Addis Ababa is probably just two. Evidence of lower fertility is raising hopes that Africa can reap a "demographic dividend", the economic benefit countries get when the share of the working-age population rises relative to children and old people.

When fertility started to fall in Asia after 1960 and Latin America after 1970, the number of children a woman could expect in her lifetime fell from six to two in a generation. And contraceptive use spread rapidly. Family planners were amazed to discover that only a year or two after contraceptives had appeared in cities, illiterate women were using them in remote villages.

But in Niger and Uganda, the fall in fertility has barely begun. Where it has started, the decline is usually slower than it was in Asia. East Asian fertility fell by more than half in the 20 years to 1985. In Cameroon fertility has fallen only one point (from 5.7 to 4.7) in the past 20 years. And in eight African countries, including Ghana and Kenya, the decline has stalled—that is, after falling for a while, the rate got stuck at about five.

But fertility stalls happen: Argentina's fertility remained at three for decades; South Korea and Costa Rica also experienced hiccups. But Africa has experience more stalls than other countries, and so early in the process of decline.

In the 1970s the extended family played a big role in African life; children are often brought up by cousins or aunts. This reduces the burden of child-rearing on the parents and cuts the implicit cost of children.

Family planning is much less readily available in Africa than it was in Asia. By some estimates, a quarter of married women want contraceptives but cannot get them. That reflects reduced aid for family planning in the past 15 years and political ambivalence about cutting fertility in Africa itself.

Uganda's president once told a student gathering "your job is to produce children"; a Ugandan village chief says “to avoid having intruders grab our land we must keep producing many children."

Malawi increased modern contraceptive use from 17% of women in 1998 to 42% in 2010 but fertility fell only a bit,. Many Africans have traditionally used birth control to space their children, while still planning large families. The average lapse between first and second births in South Africa is almost four years. This method of control does cut fertility, but not as much as the other.

Infant mortality in Africa remains stubbornly high: 85 babies die for every 1,000 live births. True, that is half the level of the 1950s, but more than four times East Asia's current rate. By increasing mortality, the spread of HIV/AIDS probably kept fertility higher than it would have been. Last, female education in Africa, like contraceptive use, has lagged behind the rest of the world, and there is a close connection between educating girls and having fewer children.

The decline could accelerate if Africa were to get the conditions right. Africa's demographic transition may end up different it will be patchier (with occasional fertility stalls) and led by cities and a few countries (South Africa, Rwanda). Until Africa reduces rural fertility, it will not reach replacement levels.

From Russia Without Love

Russian women have been able to rely on legal abortion for birth control for decades. At 73 per 100 births in 2009, its abortion rate is the highest in the world. However, Russia's population is dropping, and in July, President Dmitri Medvedev signed into law measures that require advertisements for abortion to focus on alleged health risks. In October a measure to cap abortions at 12 weeks and impose waiting periods, ultrasounds and counseling on those seeking abortion cleared two of the three legislative hurdles required before becoming law.

The effect will be largely on women's autonomy and rights, with no guarantee that the decline in population will reverse. In Russia contraception has always been harder to come by than safe abortion. It is said that contraception is a Western imposition, a danger to women's health and a threat to the social fabric. The Soviet system rightly saw that modern contraceptive methods promoted individual women's autonomy, and preferred to keep reproductive health care in the hands of state medical providers. Birth control pills, IUDs and condoms were of poor quality and hard to access.

According to a Reuters report published on November 8, "With the arrival to the market of modern methods of contraception in the 1990s, abortion rates fell by almost a third but have since dropped more slowly." But the debt crisis of 1998 resulted in lack of state funding for family planning programs, which contributed to the low rates of contraceptive usage. And doctors tend to give patients negative information about contraception, in part because they are not adequately reimbursed for contraceptive counseling.

If Russia is serious about reversing population decline, it should be serious about reducing maternal and infant mortality rates - among the highest in Europe. And Russia still has far to go in closing the gender wage gap and in meeting the need for child care and early-childhood education. These are the very factors women consider when making childbearing decisions.

Thankfully, proposed legislation that would have required a husband's consent for a married woman seeking an abortion or parental consent for women under 18, as well an amendment to strike abortion from the national health plan were dropped after proving unpopular in the polls.

There is no easy answer to demographic decline, and making abortion the scapegoat for decades of neglect to women's well-being will not help. Building a stronger society that supports women and children is the long, slow, sure road to a thriving Russia.

Nagorno-Karabakh: The National Womb

Nagorno-Karabakh is a disputed region in the southern Caucasus which has suffered a devastating war. It's government in 2008 introduced a birth encouragement program to replace the population. Each newlywed couple gets about $780 at their wedding. For each newborn, newlyweds get cash payments. Families with six or more children under 18 are given a house.

The conflict started in 1988 and escalated in 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed. Nagorno-Karabakh's ethnic Armenians, with backing from neighboring Armenia, fought Azerbaijan. 65,000 ethnic Armenians and 40,000 ethnic Azeris were displaced. The Muslim Azeri population never returned, and neither did many of the Armenians who had fled. A cease-fire was declared in May 1994 and on Sept. 2, Nagorno-Karabakh celebrated 20 years of independence, though it remains unrecognized by the international community.

Unemployment is high in the area, salaries are low, opportunities are few; the young continue to leave in search of better futures abroad. The average monthly salary is $50.

In a region as economically deprived as Nagorno-Karabakh, is the solution simply to increase the birthrate? Without first improving education, infrastructure and employment opportunities for future generations, and raising the standard of living, the children of today's baby boom may grow up to leave in search of better lives abroad, just like the youths of today.

From Russia Without Love

Russian women have been able to rely on legal abortion for birth control for decades. At 73 per 100 births in 2009, its abortion rate is the highest in the world. However, Russia's population is dropping, and in July, President Dmitri Medvedev signed into law measures that require advertisements for abortion to focus on alleged health risks. In October a measure to cap abortions at 12 weeks and impose waiting periods, ultrasounds and counseling on those seeking abortion cleared two of the three legislative hurdles required before becoming law.

The effect will be largely on women's autonomy and rights, with no guarantee that the decline in population will reverse. In Russia contraception has always been harder to come by than safe abortion. It is said that contraception is a Western imposition, a danger to women's health and a threat to the social fabric. The Soviet system rightly saw that modern contraceptive methods promoted individual women's autonomy, and preferred to keep reproductive health care in the hands of state medical providers. Birth control pills, IUDs and condoms were of poor quality and hard to access.

According to a Reuters report published on November 8, "With the arrival to the market of modern methods of contraception in the 1990s, abortion rates fell by almost a third but have since dropped more slowly." But the debt crisis of 1998 resulted in lack of state funding for family planning programs, which contributed to the low rates of contraceptive usage. And doctors tend to give patients negative information about contraception, in part because they are not adequately reimbursed for contraceptive counseling.

If Russia is serious about reversing population decline, it should be serious about reducing maternal and infant mortality rates - among the highest in Europe. And Russia still has far to go in closing the gender wage gap and in meeting the need for child care and early-childhood education. These are the very factors women consider when making childbearing decisions.

Thankfully, proposed legislation that would have required a husband's consent for a married woman seeking an abortion or parental consent for women under 18, as well an amendment to strike abortion from the national health plan were dropped after proving unpopular in the polls.

There is no easy answer to demographic decline, and making abortion the scapegoat for decades of neglect to women's well-being will not help. Building a stronger society that supports women and children is the long, slow, sure road to a thriving Russia.

Kenya: Maternal and Child Health Vulnerabilities Among Pastoralist Communities in Turkana

Delivery with the aid of a traditional birth attendant is the best a pregnant rural Turkana woman can hope for in a region with a shortage of health facilities and where only 8.2% of all the babies born are delivered in hospital.

The average pregnant mother in rural Turkana has to walk at least 50 kilometers to the nearest health center. There are only 34 dispensaries within a sixteen thousand square kilometer region. The biggest danger with walking is that a woman can bleed to death on the way.

Turkana men are often away from the homestead for months on end grazing their cattle, pregnant women in the region are often reluctant to leave their homes unattended even as their time for delivery nears, no one to take care of the children and animals, so they choose to deliver at home.

Indonesia: Overpopulation Puts Java at Risk of Water Shortage

Spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho of the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) said a population overload has put Java at risk of suffering a water shortage.

Java has around 128 million people, which is equal to 59% of Indonesia's population.­ More and more forests have been converted into farming areas. The environmental carrying capacity based on the ecological footprint method shows that the environmental carrying capacity has been surpassed," Nugroho said.

The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) has predicted that the average rainfall in the 2010-2020 period would be less than the 1978-2007 period.

One-Child Policy a Surprising Boon for China Girls

In 1978, women made up only 24.2% of the student population at Chinese colleges and universities. By 2009, that number rose to nearly half, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

In contrast, women in India make up 37.6% of those enrolled at institutes of higher education, according to government statistics.

Since 1979, China's family planning rules have barred nearly all urban families from having a second child in a bid to stem population growth. With no male heir competing for resources, parents have spent more on their daughters' education and well-being, a groundbreaking shift after centuries of discrimination.

"They've basically gotten everything that used to only go to the boys," said Vanessa Fong, a Harvard University professor and expert on China's family planning policy.

"In the past, girls were raised to be good wives and mothers," said Vanessa Fong, a Harvard University professor and expert on China's family planning policy. "They were going to marry out anyway, so it wasn't a big deal if they didn't want to study."

Today's urban Chinese parents "perceive their daughters as the family's sole hope for the future," and try to help them to outperform their classmates, regardless of gender.

Some demographers argue that China's fertility rate would have fallen sharply even without the one-child policy because economic growth tends to reduce family size. In that scenario, Chinese girls may have gotten more access to education anyway, though the gains may have been more gradual.

Crediting the one-child policy with improving the lives of women is jarring, given its history and how it's harmed women in other ways. Facing pressure to stay under population quotas, overzealous family planning officials have resorted to forced sterilizations and late-term abortions, sometimes within weeks of delivery, although such practices are illegal.

When sonogram technology arrived in the 1980's, some families were able to engineer a male heir by terminating pregnancies when the fetus was a girl. Chinese traditionally prefer boys because they carry on the family name and are considered better earners. 43 million girls have "disappeared" in China due to gender-selective abortion as well as neglect and inadequate access to health care and nutrition, according to a recent UN report.

"It is gendercide," said Therese Hesketh, a University College London professor who has studied China's skewed sex ratio. To combat the problem, China allows families in rural areas, where son preference is strongest, to have a second child if their first is a girl. The government has also launched education campaigns promoting girls and gives cash subsidies to rural families with daughters.

Beijing-based population expert Yang Juhua has determined that single children in China tend to be the best educated, while those with elder brothers get shortchanged. China has many loopholes to the one-child rule, including a few cities that have experimented with a two-child policy for decades.

While women have reached gender parity in education, they remain woefully underrepresented in government, have higher suicide rates than males, often face domestic violence and workplace discrimination and by law must retire at a younger age than men.

It remains to be seen whether the new generation of degree-wielding women can alter the balance outside the classroom.

Beijing: in Defence of Sex Education in Schools

While older Chinese may be shocked by the idea of sex education, in recent years China has seen a dramatic increase in premarital sex, and unwanted pregnancies and abortions among young girls.

For that reason sex education classes, complete with graphic drawings of sexual organs, will be introduced to a primary school in Beijing from this session on an experimental basis.

Medical clinics in China perform an estimated 13 million abortions a year. Add to that the abortions performed in unregistered medical clinics and then there are the 10 million abortion-inducing pills are sold every year.

Many people in China lack even the basic knowledge to prevent unwanted pregnancies. Li Ying, a professor at Peking University, says that young people need to acquire better knowledge about sex.

Nearly two-thirds of the abortions in the country's hospitals are performed on single women aged between 20 and 29 and nearly half of the women who underwent abortions said they did not use contraceptives, according to a study and a government official.

In countries like the United States, Britain, Germany, Japan and Singapore, all schools have sex education courses which begin from the early grades, even in primary schools.

Sex education in schools doesn't necessarily mean encouraging "sexual liberation". In China, where people are relatively conservative about sex, introducing sex education in schools in the early grades will help youngsters avoid unsafe sex rather than encourage them to have sex.

Because parents do not tell their offspring the facts about sexual activity and how to engage in it responsibly, every generation believes it "invented" sex. Sex is a normal activity that is on the minds of both men and women, therefore, humans do not have sex just for procreation. Sex serves multiple purposes, including personal pleasure, social bonding - as seen among live-in partners and spouses - and procreation.

Children and teenagers images and stories about romance and sex in the media almost every day. But the information they get may not be wholesome or accurate. Avoiding discussions on the subject won't prevent young people from taking interest in or having sex. It will only force them to get information from other sources which could be misleading and even dangerous, and could lead to unwanted pregnancies or sexually transmitted diseases.

Sex education should be appropriate to the age of the student. For older teens, the topics could include the physical mechanics of sex or "what sex is", the nature of sexual attraction, sexual feelings and sexual pleasure, various approaches to values related to sex, sexually transmissible diseases and how to prevent them, safe sex practices, sexual preferences, how to say "no" to sex and how to accept a "no", and actions to take if one becomes pregnant.

Sex - like other aspects of our lives - be dealt with frankly and appropriately in the educational process.

Philippines: UN to Stop Funding Philippine Population Plan

The United Nations is planning to cut back its $1 million aid to the Philippine governments birth control program. The UN is cutting back next year due to lack of funding from members.

Iloilo Rep. Janette Garin said that the fund was used for birth control injectable drugs and pills especially to those who just gave birth. She feared that the Philippines could experience a spike in its population growth rate recently pegged at 2.4% per annum.

This makes the passage of the Reproductive Health bill more urgent to ensure sustained funding for family planning programs.

Afghanistan Fights Population Growth with Birth Control

Afghanistan's Ministry of Health warns that the country's population of 30 million will double (see comment below), stunting opportunities for economic growth in one of the world's poorest countries, so the government is trying to curb the growth by launching a "multi-sectoral effort," which would include the use of contraceptives.

Despite escalating violence and a surge in civilian casualties in the NATO-led war against insurgents, the Afghan women manage to have 6.3 children on average over their lifetime, according to the United Nations.

Wagma Battoor from anti-poverty organization CARE's Kabul branch said: "In countries like Afghanistan, where women are illiterate and repressed, (family planning) could be difficult." In rural areas and the Taliban strongholds of the south and east, many women still seek permission from a male relative for most decisions, including leaving their homes. Battoor said for contraceptives to work in Afghanistan, men must be involved.

"In addition to providing education, counseling and improving women's access to birth control supply, it is equally important to include men in the family planning discussion," she said.

But Khalilullah Mohammad, a lecturer in Islamic law at Kabul University said, "It is not up to us to control the reproduction of children." .. "The holy Koran tells us not to kill your children... If anyone asks me advice on this new plan, I will strictly oppose it."

The relatively high success with hormone-containing birth control in wealthier Muslim countries such as Iran and Jordan prompted views that birth control for fear of poverty or to prevent conception permanently is unlawful under Islam.

Contraception, a Life-saving Investment for the Philippines

In the Philippines, more than half of the 3.4 million yearly pregnancies in the country are unplanned, resulting in high costs to women, their families and the national health care system. This very high rate of unintended pregnancy is impeding the Philippine’s development goals.

Unintended pregnancies are highly preventable if women have access to voluntary family planning information and services, particularly modern methods of contraception. Investing in contraception significantly improves public health, while also saving money and bolstering national economies.

Researcher by the University of the Philippines Population Institute and the New York City-based Guttmacher Institute found that expanding access to modern contraceptive methods as well as natural family planning in the Philippines would result in 800,000 fewer unplanned births, 500,000 fewer induced abortions and 200,000 fewer miscarriages each year. It would prevent the deaths of 2,100 women—nearly half of all deaths from pregnancy related causes—and prevent the cumulative loss of 120,000 healthy years of women’s lives that are currently shortened or impaired as a result of unintended pregnancies.

The 35% of Filipino women aged 15-49 who are poor account for more than half (53%) of the unmet need for contraception.

WHile providing modern contraceptive services to all women at risk of unintended pregnancy would raise annual family planning costs from P1.9 billion to P4 billion, on the other hand, the medical costs associated with unintended pregnancy, including treating the consequences of unsafe abortion, would fall dramatically—from P3.5 billion to P600 million—resulting in a reduction of P2.9 billion in these costs and a net savings of P0.8 billion.

These savings could then be used to improve and expand a range of health and social services, making it much more possible for the Philippines to achieve its development goals.

The reason to invest in voluntary family planning is to let women decide when to become pregnant and how many children to have. If we succeed in this goal, the payoff will be great for Filipino women, their families, their communities and society overall.

Finance: Development Banks Lag on Sexual Health - Report

Multilateral development banks (MDBs) that lend to poor nations have spent little money on sexual health, and, in some cases, have followed policies that impeded women's empowerment.

The study examines the quantity and quality of funding for reproductive health from 2003 to 2006.

It records a decline in World Bank spending and a shortage of support for reproductive health and HIV/AIDS. This occurred although these banks have pledged to help countries meet the MDGs.

The World Bank was the largest funder from 2003-2006 approving a total of 7.5 billion dollars but funding declined from 2.7 billion dollars for such projects in 2003 to only 1.5 billion in 2006.

This comes after the bank was criticized for attempts to water down bank policy on reproductive health.

The African Development Bank Tunisia-based lender gave 44 million dollars for HIV/AIDS projects from 2003-2006 and 108 million dollars for reproductive health during the same time period. The Asian Development Bank's investments in reproductive health and HIV/AIDS from 2003 to 2006 totaled 47.4 million dollars. Last year, the bank lent 8.5 billion dollars for various projects.

The Inter-American Development Bank provided three million dollars in loans and grants for reproductive health and HIV/AIDS during the same four years. MDBs initiatives often lack gender rights projects.

Compounding lack of gender sensitivity is their unsustainability caused by project shortcomings including short-term duration and lack of funding for recurrent expenditures.

The IMF was faulted for loan and policy advice that force most borrowing governments to place limits on public sector wages and reduce the number of doctors and nurses. Development banks have introduced systems to monitor progress on gender equality policies and there has been modest progress. rw

Philippines: Family Planning a 'Sacred' Choice for 82% of Pinoys

A survey of 1,200 adults by Social Weather Stations (SWS) showed that 82% of those polled consider family planning as a "sacred" personal choice that should not be interfered with. The poll showed that Filipinos want the government to provide information and subsidize family planning methods.

The rating was 21 points higher than the 61% rating on the same issue in November 1990.

82% agreed with the statement "the choice of a family planning method is a personal choice of couples and no one should interfere with it." Only 8% disagreed while 9% were undecided.

The RH bill currently pending in Congress promotes both natural and artificial means of family planning and pushes for sex education in schools. But the bill is opposed by the Catholic Church which allows only natural family planning.

73% also said if a couple wanted to practice family planning, relevant information on "all legal methods" should be provided by the government. And 68% agreed that "the government should fund all means of family planning, be it natural or artificial means."

About half of the respondents disagreed that the use of pills, condoms, and intra-uterine devices can be considered as abortifacients.

Tale of Two Countries: Thailand and the Philippines

Dr. Nibhon Debavalya, Thailands leading population expert, and Meechai Viravaidya, the family planning and anti-HIV-AIDS activist who received the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1994, tell the same story.

Starting from the same point in the early 70s, Thailand and the Philippines took separate routes, with contrasting results.

Thailand now has a much smaller population, a much bigger economy, fewer people living in poverty and a better quality of life for the general population. Thailand, took family planning seriously.

In 1975 they both started with roughly the same population size, a high population growth rate, a high fertility rate and a high proportion of people living under the poverty line. Thailand had a slightly smaller GDP than the Philippines.

Thailand was able to radically reduce its population growth rate to 0.6% while the Philippines inched down to 2.04% in the period 1970-2010.

During 1970-2008, Thailands GDP per capita grew by 4.4%, while the Philippines grew by 1.4%.

By 2008, Thailands total GDP was $273 billion while the Philippines was $167 billion.

By 2010, there were 93.6 million Filipinos, or over 20 million more than the 68.1 million Thais.

By 2010, only 9.6% of Thais lived under the national poverty line while 26.4% of Filipinos did.

Comparing amount of corruption, economic policies, social programs such as asset redistribution measures and agrarian reform, the two countries are similar.

One cannot deny that the rapid reduction of population growth and fertility in Thailand and its slow decline in the Philippines played a very major role in explaining the difference in the post-1970s economic and social performance of the two countries.

In Thailand the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) fell from 5.5 to 2.2 in only 20 years, which was the swiftest rate over the period among all countries in Southeast Asia. Nibhon has attributed this to:

*The fall in the death rate owing to better health services and the rising cost of education that Thais saw as the main vehicle for social mobility combined to make people realize the economic cost associated with having more babies, especially the rising cost of obtaining quality education for ones offspring.

*The high level of female autonomy in the family and religion. Unlike Catholicism, Buddhism does not have anything against family planning, except abortion.

*There was a latent demand for smaller families which could not be filled owing to lack of knowledge of and access to effective methods.

*The national governments durable commitment to a comprehensive program that systematically provided information and contraceptives, especially to the poor and in rural areas.

NGOs, such as Meechais Population and Community Development Association educated rural Thais on the different methods of family planning, while the government that provided access to contraceptives in the grassroots.

The decline in fertility from 3% in 1970 to 2.2% by 1984 was a 30% decline in 14 years, one of the most significant declines ever observed in any developing country, says Nibhon.

Demographically, Thailand was well positioned when Japanese capital flowed into the country during the golden age of economic growth from 1985 to 1995.

Instead of the fruits of economic growth being eaten up by the need to feed larger and larger families, the reproductive revolution led to smaller families, triggered a higher savings and investment rate and enabled the government to divert more and more funds from expanding primary education facilities to investing more in high school and college education to improve the quality of the work force.

Meechai, who had played a key role in family planning, also took a high-profile role in promoting the condom to stop the spread of AIDS, taking his campaign so aggressively to sex workers that the condom came to be known as meechai in Thailand. The 100-percent-Condom-Use-Campaign aimed to empower sex workers to refuse sex service when customers did not agree to use a condom. No condom, no sex.

Owing to the success of government efforts to reduce fertility and people living longer, Thailand now has a higher proportion of elderly people than a few years ago. However labor productivity has risen, meaning fewer workers are needed to produce the same output.

With so many resources freed that would otherwise go to educating large numbers of children entering early education, more investments can be made to upgrade the quality of post-elementary education and the productivity of the working age population that is growing more slowly in absolute numbers.

Surveys have shown a very widespread unmet need for family planning in the Philippines. This could indicate that were the RH bill to be approved, the effects in terms of a decline in the fertility rate and birth rate could be just as swift as in Thailand, despite the objections of the Catholic Church hierarchy.

In the Philippines the only area of family life where there is a relative absence of female control is reproduction. Here it is not male macho that appears to be the problem but lack of knowledge or access to contraceptives.

Male coercion in the Philippines is not absent: it assumes the form of an ideological and political obstruction posed by the Catholic hierarchys opposition to state-sponsored family planning. The passage of the Reproductive Health, Family Planning and Population and Development Bill (RH bill) would severely weaken this patriarchal barrier to womens reproductive control.

Japan's Food Chain Threat Multiplies as Radiation Spreads

Radiation fallout from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant poses a growing threat to Japan's food chain. 1,183 cattle at 58 farms were fed hay containing radioactive cesium before being shipped to meat markets. 4,108 kilograms of beef suspected of being contaminated was inadvertantly put on sale at 174 stores across Japan

The government on July 19 banned cattle shipments from Fukushima prefecture, though not before some had been slaughtered and shipped to supermarkets. A ban on shiitake mushrooms from another part of Fukushima was introduced on July 23 because of cesium levels, the health ministry said.

Seafood is another concern after cesium-134 in seawater near the Fukushima plant climbed to levels 30 times the allowed safety standards last week,

Tetsuo Ito, the head of the Atomic Energy Research Institute at Kinki University in central Japan, said "It's possible that contaminated groundwater leaked from the plant."

Japan has no centralized system to check for radiation contamination of food, leaving local authorities and farmers conducting voluntary tests. Products including spinach, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, tea, milk, plums and fish have been found contaminated with cesium and iodine as far as 360 kilometers from Dai-Ichi.

On June 6, Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said the plant released about 770,000 tera becquerels of radioactive material into the air between March 11 and March 16, doubling an earlier estimate.

That's about 14% of the radiation emitted in the Chernobyl disaster in modern-day Ukraine. About 2 million people in Ukraine are under permanent medical monitoring, 25 years after the accident, according to the nation's embassy in Tokyo.

Cases of thyroid cancer in Belarus, which neighbors Ukraine, increased for at least 10 years after 1986 in children younger than 14 and for almost 20 years among 20-24 year olds, according to research by Shunichi Yamashita of Nagasaki University.

Indonesia: The Thinker: Planning Families

Family planning had been relegated to obscurity for over a decade, but is gradually emerging as one of the solutions to several pressing problems faced by Indonesia, including an alarmingly high rate of population growth, the perennial problem of poverty, with its attendant problems of social and economic unrest, and the future burden the elderly will place on the state.

Indonesia's population grew at a rate of 1.5% from 2000 to 2010, adding an additional 3-4 million people each year. Government development programs designed to improve the welfare of the people may be derailed by uncontrolled population growth.

The transition to democracy in the reform era following the fall of Suharto in 1998, and the devolution of fiscal and political power to the regions that occurred under decentralization led to a re-evaluation of the public policies and values — irrespective of their intrinsic good — instilled by the deposed regime.

For political leaders bent on staying in favor with their constituents, there is little incentive to prioritize family planning over direct assistance programs that have a clear impact on the community.

But an effective family planning program would keep development programs and their potential beneficiaries in a state of equilibrium. A wide range of community-based development programs already initiated by the government would lead to more sustainable solutions if a well-thought-out family planning regime was firmly embedded in those programs.

The various targets set out in the UN Millennium Development Goals would more likely to be attained if family planning received sufficient emphasis in MDG programs.

With such a wealth of experience in family planning, Indonesia does not have to reinvent the wheel to set up another viable program. All the nation needs is an enduring commitment to venture in this direction once again.

Asia's 163 Million Missing Girls

Mara Hvistendahl is the author of Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men. She puts the number of missing girls in Asia at 163 million, more than the entire female population in the U.S. The imbalance was made possible by gender-selection abortion practices not only in China, but in India and other developing countries -- and in ethnic Asian communities in the U.S.

As a result, tens of millions of men in Asia, 'surplus males,' who, without female counterparts, may purchase women from poorer countries.

Sex selection has taken hold thanks to technology, lower birth rates, and deep-seated cultural biases that require a boy to carry on a family's lineage.

Abortion is accessible and widely used in most cultures, easier to obtain than in the U.S. There are nearly three abortions for every birth in some countries. "The availability of relatively inexpensive screening with unconditional abortion is a game changer," says Nicholas Eberstadt, a demographer at American Enterprise Institute.

Falling birth rates in developing countries, which improve the health and education of mothers and children, have the unintended consequence of encouraging sex-selection abortion. When a woman gave birth to six children, the odds were 99% that one would be a boy. With two children, it's only a 24% chance. "It's not that women want more boys, they have less chance of getting them," says Hvistendahl. Eberstadt says that women will take whatever sex with the first child, but after that, it's "very apparent there?s a massive parental intervention going on."

Sex selection happens more frequently with the urban, educated middle-class, says Hvistendahl, adding that it seems paradoxical that educated women are more likely to abort a fetus. Women in China are doing better than ever before, with more women in Ph.D. programs than men. "Yet this is happening at the same time,? she says. "If you don?t have a boy, you lose status."

Birth Control Fits the Bill in the Philippines

In the case of the Philippines population growth is out of control.

You can argue from superstition, from authority or from fact (science). Where religion is involved many folks in the Philippines are going to appeal to No 2: authority, which winds up being the Pope.

But the Pope doesn't have the right to speak for the Philippines as a whole. Catholics predominate, but there are lots of Muslims, breakaway Christians and mainstream Christians who happen not to be Catholic.

Father Joaquin Bernas, priest and former president of Ateneo de Manila University is supporting the Reproductive Health Bill, despite vituperative denunciations.

The bill, RH4244 or "An Act Providing for a Comprehensive Policy on Responsible Parenthood, Reproductive Health, and Population and Development, and For Other Purposes", establishes means of educating school kids on sex and their choices ahead and provide non-abortive methods of birth control. Governments would ensure the availability of reproductive healthcare services, including family planning and prenatal care.

Most countries would have no problem with this bill. And Catholics almost nowhere else give a hoot what the Pope or church say on birth control.

Now that the president, the most authoritative ex-president and numerous writers and teachers are on board in support of RH4244, things are changing.

But, meantime, one reads arguments attempting to show that more mouths to feed doesn't mean more mouths to feed, but more people to farm the (almost disappearing) soil. Or that the overflow people should move to uninhabited areas in the archipelago, even uninhabited islands. Are there roads into these places? Schools? Hospitals?

Supporters of the bill are being threatened with excommunication. Some proclaim a condom is a "murder weapon".

In 1970, the Philippines and Thailand were about equal in numbers and wealth. Thailand introduced family planning; the Philippines maintained its voodoo attitude. Thailand stabilized not much above the 1970s level and doubled its income relative to the Philippines.

It is funny that Malta just voted to permit divorce while only the Philippines remains. Most of my younger friends grew up not knowing their fathers, who just drifted off to start a new family somewhere else. So much for the status quo protecting the family.

The fact that the president who has proposed this bill is the son of late president Cory Aquino, protégée of Cardinal Sin and dead set against family planning, may be good news enough.

The overall majority popular support for the bill may finally just be enough to give the Congress enough teeth to withstand the clawing of the church and its advocates.

Global Food Crisis: China Land Deal Causes Unease in Argentina

A Chinese-owned agribusiness firm Beidahuang signed an agreement last year to buy a large swath of land in Patagonia. Critics claim the Chinese plan will result in heavy agrochemical use, ecological degradation, and strained water resources.

Diets in China's urban areas are diets are changing rapidly as the economy grows. People are eating more industrially produced meat and dairy products, and buying more processed foods.

China can no longer provide the soya that is the feedstock for this revolution, so Beidahuang has joined the global scramble for land and water that has accelerated since food prices spiked in 2008.

Up to 790,000 acres of privately owned farmland, along with irrigation rights and a concession on the San Antonio port will be acquired.

Beidahuang will also buy palm oil plantations and grain terminals on 200,000 ha in the Philippines.

Beidahuang is the leading soya producer in China and one of the country's five largest soya processors. It also raises more than 600,000 cows, 1.3m pigs and more than 6m chickens at any one time.

Manuel Accatino, the region's deputy secretary for agriculture in Río Negro, said. "We can foresee global shortages of land, water and energy, and Río Negro can offer all three."

Argentinian environmental groups and constitutional experts are outraged an have been working with the federal government that would restrict foreign ownership of Argentinian land.

President Barcesat said, "We need our own people to eat well first, and after that we can feed the rest of the world. We want more small and middle-sized owners, we don't like the excessive concentration, and we want farmers who will be careful with the land, not exploit it."

Research from the International Land Coalition, and Oxfam Novib, the Netherlands affiliate of Oxfam International, has identified more than 1,200 international land deals covering more than 80m hectares since 2000 - the vast majority of them after 2007. More than 60% of the land targeted was in Africa.

The Río Negro region is famous for its fruit orchards, which produce 70% of the country's apples and pears, exports eaten in northern Europe when the fruit season in that continent ends.

Dams have already cut the flow of the Negro rive and Chinese plans to invest $20m immediately to build irrigation infrastructure would strain resources further. Opponents claim that since soya cultivation is highly mechanised it will prompt unemployment in the area, as it has elsewhere in the country where many rural communities have seen an increase in deep poverty as jobs are lost.

Elvio Mendioroz, president of Uñopatún, an agro-ecoclogical group that opposes the Chinese deal, said the agreement had been kept secret. "China has run out of land to feed its people, and is suffering drought and soil erosion, so they come here.

Philippines: Senate Version of RH Bill Reaches Plenary

The Philippine's controversial reproductive health (RH) bill - Senate Bill 2865 - has been sponsored on the Senate floor 2 days before the first regular session of the 15th Congress ends.

Senate health and demography committee chair Pia Cayetano is a sponsor of the bill and emphasized that the bill seeks to save the lives of both mothers and the unborn, provide Filipinos with information and education on reproductive health, and give people access to reproductive health care facilities.

The bill does not legalize abortion, impose any mode of family planning method on families, require a certain family size, or promote sexual activity among the youth, she said.

"This bill will not solve all the problems of our country. Like most of the bills filed in the Senate, it is just one measure that will address a particular problem. In this case, it is the reproductive health of all Filipinos, particularly the woman and her child," Cayetano told the Senate.

She noted that the Philippines has a high maternal death rate. "A child who loses a mother at childbirth is ten times more likely to perish. Without a mother, who will now care for the child?" she said. "No other human being can take the place of the mother....and I dare say neither can the State."

Dispelling Myths: Population Growth – Problem Or Hype?

This video is 48 minutes long, but it is well worth waiting for the last speaker, Dr Eliya Zulu, who does an excellent job of dispeling some common misconceptions about population, mainly that the North is imposing population control upon the south. Dr Zulu is the Executive Director of the African Institute for Development Policy (AFIDEP) and President of the Union for African Population Studies, with over 20 years' experience in international development, population change, urbanization, health systems and policy analysis.

Philippines: Salves Life a Strong Case for Reproductive Health Bill

Salve, a 37-year-old woman in Valenzuela City, has eight children and is pregnant again. She is also hungry; she and her partner of 22 years, Alfredo, do not take much.

Salve works in a plastics factory and earns P1,500 on good days; P700 on bad days. She and her partner make about P5,200 a month. After expenses for the house, electricity, and water, there is enought for rice porridge, bought at P3 a cup. Small fish, bought at P20 a handful, are delicacies.

Not one of her children has been able to finish his or her studies, due to money restraints. The highest grade one of her children reached was 6th.

The family lives in a 32-square-meter enclosed space with two tables and a makeshift wooden bed. A hole in the ground serves as the toilet.

She and her children barely fit on the bed. Alfredo sleeps on the floor. She has had to throw out two of her elder sons several times in the past.

Salve has given birth to 12 of Alfredos children. Three died of sepsis, or the invasion of the body by pathogenic microorganisms. Another, an 18 year old, was run over by a bus.

Salve admits that her family experiences financial difficulties primarily because she has too many children.

In an effort to lessen the number of mouths they were obligated to feed, she and her partner tried abstinence. But the attempt did not work.

She is not opposed to sex education. Had she known about the importance of family planning much earlier, she would not have allowed herself to get pregnant so many times, she says.

This view is in line with some of the provisions of the measure that proposes the integration of sexual awareness in school curriculums and offers couples an informed choice in ways to plan their families. The proposed legislation is being debated upon in the plenary in the House of Representatives.

President Aquino has expressed support for the RH bill. But the Catholic Church and a number of lawmakers remain firmly opposed to the measure and have vowed to block its passage.

Salve plans to undergo tubal ligation to avoid getting pregnant again.

Rapid Urbanization Affects Public Health

In China more than an estimated 100 million people have moved from the countryside to rapidly expanding urban centers in the country during the past 20 years. This rapid urbanization has significant repercussions on migrants' health.

Changes in diet and physical exertion, increasing obesity in society and heightening the risk of type II diabetes and cardiovascular diseases occur with urbanization.

Poverty, vulnerability to sexual abuse and exploitation, hazardous working conditions and separation from social support networks are additional mobility-related risks among migrants, many affecting women, children and the elderly.

Migrants may be young and healthy on their arrival in cities, but poor living conditions and overcrowded houses and neighborhoods increase the incidence of diseases such as malaria, typhoid and respiratory ailments. Lately the problem of rising TB infection has been compounded by delayed diagnosis and inadequate care.

Migrants show high rates of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS and tend to spread the virus when they return to rural areas, where health facilities are not as well equipped to deal with the infection as they are in cities.

Many migrants lack knowledge of how to use existing health services and have insufficient money to pay a hospital for treatment.

Many migrant women work in industries where they come in contact with environmental contaminants that are dangerous to their reproductive system, especially if they are pregnant.

Toxic substances in the environment increase the risk of abortion, birth defects, fetal growth and neo-natal death.

Newborns are especially vulnerable to disease if they grow up in overcrowded places and are subjected to poor hygiene, excessive noise and lack of space for recreation and study. They suffer not only from a hostile physical environment, but also from stress and other factors such as violence that such environments create.

Many children are left at home by migrants, in many cases in the care of grandparents. Adolescents of migrant parents tend to have a less healthy diet, become overweight and are more prone to smoking and drinking alcohol, often explained by the lack of parental control.

For the poor in the cities, drinking water supply, housing, solid waste disposal, transportation and healthcare are either deficient or non-existent. Instead they get an extra dose of environmental pollution, because many industries tend to cluster in outlying areas where regulations are comparatively lax. Unemployment, poverty and crowded living conditions contribute to violence, substance abuse and mental illness.

Motor vehicles are a big source of air pollution, having a serious impact on health, plus they cause pedestrian injuries and fatalities.

Crowded urban neighborhoods, combined with poor sanitary conditions and inadequate waste removal, create conditions for the spread of infectious diseases such as pneumonia, TB and cholera. Inadequate sanitation is an important risk factor for diarrheal and parasitic diseases.

Given the serious effects that urbanization can have on health, it is essential to include health considerations into policymaking. Since the poor and migrants suffer many of the negative effects more acutely, it is important to assess their needs properly. More efforts should be made to devise prevention policies in industries where migrants are concentrated.

Cities are magnets that attract migrants for the opportunities they offer but they must provide a safe and stable environment for people to prosper.

Philippines: Surging Population, Rising Troubles

The Catholic Bishops Conference warned 23 years ago of Nuestro perdido Eden - our imperiled Eden, echoing the country's national hero, Dr Jose Rizal. Today his words have proved prophetic.

Rapid population growth, unchecked and unequal access to natural resources and their subsequent over-exploitation, uncontrolled logging, waste disposal and mining and the pollution of rivers, lakes and sea are the root causes of the environmental destruction and degradation both in coastal and upland areas, states a report released by the German Technical Cooperation agency (GTZ).

All this destruction and its consequences can be curbed only if the population stops growing, now at about 100 million - and projected to reach 140 million by 2050. But Catholic priests and anti-reproductive health bill activists say "No way."

Metro Manila went from 10 million people in 1992 to 16 million. Population growth that is too fast does not leave time to provide public services and the stresses from rapid urbanization harm the environment and the people living in it, according to Gregory C. Ira, who has worked with the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction.

Ferdinand Magellan in 1521 saw forests blanketing 95% of the country. A WWF study showed that more than 119,000 hectares of forest cover disappears yearly, all likely to disappear in 10 years.

"Approximately two-thirds of the country's original mangroves have been lost," reported Kathleen Mogelgaard, of Population Action International (PAI). "The productivity of the country's agricultural lands and fisheries is declining as these areas become increasingly degraded and pushed beyond their capacity to produce." .. "Rapid forest loss has eliminated habitat for unique and threatened plant and animal species," she added.

Fires, slash-and-burn farmers and commercial loggers are mostly to blame. In the past, forest resources helped fuel the economy. In the 1970s, the country was tops among world timber exporters. Urbanization is also to blame.

75% of the over 30 million poor live in the rural areas where poverty has forced many of them to invade the forest.

Deforestation has altered the climatic condition in the country. Periods of drought have become more common and extensive in the dry season while floods have prevailed in the rainy months.

The removal of forest cover has increased soil erosion in the uplands. And siltation, caused by erosion, shortens the productive life spans of dams and reservoirs, reducing the life span of the Magat reservoir, for example, from a probable life span of 100 years to 25 years, and the Ambuklao reservoir from 60 to 32 years.

Deforestation has also reduced the volume of groundwater available for domestic purposes. Cebu, having lost all forest cover, is 99% dependent on groundwater and more than half of its towns and cities, excluding Metro Cebu, have no access to potable water. The country has lost 30% to 50% of its water resources in 20 years.

Soil erosion also affects agriculture, which contributes 20% to the country's gross domestic product and employs nearly one-third of the country's total labor force. Nutrients are lost from the soil, reducing crop yields and leading to expanded use of chemical fertilizers, which in turn, pollutes water sources. The eroded soil is carried by the rivers to the coasts, where it interferes with fish nursery areas.

Rapid population growth and the increasing human pressure on coastal resources have resulted in the massive degradation of the coral reefs, which are some of the world's most ecologically-fragile ecosystems, each reef supporting as many as 3,000 species of marine life. In the Philippines, an estimated 10-15% of the total fisheries come from coral reefs.

Gandhi once said: "There is sufficiency for man's needs, but not for man's greed." Nor, it seems, for ill-judged dogmas and short-term planning.

Family Planning Hits Culture Gap in Rural Nepal

Mrs. Chepang, 42, has conceived 26 children during the last 30 years. Her husband promised to feed her and the children and if she dies in the process, will take care of her cremation.

She was married at age 12 and believed that frequent births were natural.

Only two of her infants are alive today. "Some died in the womb, some within a few days of their birth and some after six months," she said. She often had no help during labor.

After her 23rd child, she suffered from uterine prolapse, which caused regular bleeding, dizziness and pain. But she continued to give birth. Eventually, her ability to move became limited to dragging herself to the toilet.

Nepal's fertility rate fell from 6.3 in 1976 to 3.1 in 2006, and the contraceptive prevalancy rose from 26% in 1996 to 44% in 2006 thanks to family planning promotion, but "There is a dearth of family planning services, methods and devices at the health posts" in rural, remote and socially backward societies of Nepal, says Aswini Rana, a counsellor with the Family Planning Association of Nepal.

Mrs. Chepang's husband once had to carry her for more than an hour to reach a health post.

"We have started to promote appropriate methods of family planning targeted towards those who do not understand and are hence averse to surgical measures of family planning," Kiran Regmi, director of the Family Health Division under the Department of Health Services. He said family planning awareness is increasing in Nepal.

The government says radio is the most popular way to transmit family planning messages in rural areas, but women may be too shy and embarrassed to go to the local health post to obtain contraceptives, even if they do learned about them on the radio. Mrs. Chapang's husband told her that showing her private parts to others was shameful.

But then Kiran Gautam, assistant inspector general of the police, heard Chepang's story on the radio and offered to pay for the operation. She said: "Seeing a woman, who is barely 50, in such a state and knowing how she was compelled to lead this life of pain, I realized that the status of women in Nepal is still very lamentable."

Mrs. Chepang's uterus was surgically removed last year and she now promotes family planning and advised her daughter-in-law "not to have more than two children."

Family Planning Key to Afghan Maternal Deaths - U.N.

Afghanistan's maternal mortality rate of one mother for every 60 births would be reduced if mothers spaced their pregnancies.

Bringing the toll down means that trained birth attendants are present, emergency hospital care is available and so is family planning.

People have to understand that family planning was not against the rules of Islam but is well-enshrined in the Koran, that says that women should nurse for two years, it was a form of family planning.

Spacing allows a mother to regain her health before becoming pregnant again and allows a family to devote more attention and resources to each child.

The right to health, education, the right to income and the right to life can be achieved by planning the family. rw

China Faces Challenges in Grain Production Despite Bumper Summer Harvest

Although China is likely to see a rise in summer grain output this year, it still faces challenges in grain production, Ma Xiaohe, deputy head of the Academy of Macroeconomic Research of the National Development and Reform Commission, China's top economic planning body, said recently.

With continued rising prices of producer goods, farmers' profit margins have been squeezed and dampened their enthusiasm for production. Labor costs have also risen meaning that farmers may abandon grain production to look for other jobs to earn more money.

The loss of arable land due to urbanization and the country's antiquated agricultural infrastructure also threaten grain security.

Ma said the government should increase financial support for agricultural production and take more measures, such as developing a commodity futures market, to ensure grain security.

National Geographic Magazine: Bangladesh, The Coming Storm

Home to 164 million, Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated nations on Earth. By 2050, its population could reach 220 million, and meanwhile the sea is expected to rise to a point where millions of people will be displaced, forcing Bangladeshis to crowd even closer together or else flee the country as climate refugees.

Already on the Bay of Bengal they've seen sea levels rise, destructive river flooding, salinity infect their coastal aquifers, and more and more intense cyclones battering their coast, due to disruptions in the global climate. People fleeing river flooding in the north and cyclones in the south arrive in the capital Dhaka to live in slums or in parks or along the streets. Dhaka is already struggling to provide services and infrastructure.

But through all of the catastrophes Bangladesh has faced: war, famine, disease, killer cyclones, massive floods, coups and assassinations, poverty and deprivation - the people of Bangladesh have shown amazing resilience.

Bangladesh is home to BRAC, a nonprofit which provides basic health care and other services with an army of field-workers. Bangladesh also produced the global micro-finance movement started by Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus.

In addition, despite its poverty, illiteracy, and lack of economic development, Bangladesh developed a successful family-planning program that has lowered its fertility rate from 6.6 children per woman in the 1970s to the current 2.4. Part of the success of the program has been due to immunizing children against childhood diseases. The men, previously resistant to family planning, then realized they wouldn't need to have a bunch of babies just so a few would survive, and they liked the idea of fewer mouths to feed. Infant mortality dropped dramatically between 1990 and 2008.

BRAC and other NGOs have been working at finding new ways for people to make a go of it in their villages instead of moving to Dhaka. For example, they have found that the char (changing islands) dwellers have a way of life that adapts to the changing floodplains, providing a resilient way of life. Bangladesh has developed more salt-resistant strains of rice and built dikes to keep low-lying farms from being flooded with seawater, doubling its production of rice since the early 1970s.

Recently floating schools, hospitals, and libraries have been set up to function through the flooding. And people have found that they can raise shrimps or crabs instead of rice in the ponds and growing my vegetables on the embankments.

But none of these adaptations will be enough. Even at its sharply reduced rate of growth, Bangladesh's population will continue to expand-to perhaps more than 250 million by the turn of the next century.

Millions of Bangladeshis are already working abroad. India is building a 2,500-mile security fence along its border with Bangladesh to stop mass immigration. Some people believe that Bangladesh should train professionals to make them desirable as immigrants to other countries, hoping to reduce Bangladesh's population by 8 to 20 million people.

Water Wars? Thirsty, Energy-Short China Stirs Fear

Inhabitants along major rivers originating in China, the Brahmaputra and the Mekong, for example, blame China for the sudden flooding that took out homes, possessions and livestock, and the far-below-normal river levels.

The blame game, voiced in vulnerable river towns and Asian capitals from Pakistan to Vietnam, is rooted in fear that China's accelerating program of damming every major river flowing from the Tibetan plateau will trigger natural disasters, degrade fragile ecologies, and divert vital water supplies.

Almost 20 dams have been built or are under construction the eight great Tibetan rivers alone, while 40, more or less, are planned or proposed.

China is not the only one disrupting the region's water flows but China's vast thirst for power and water, its control over the sources of the rivers and its ever-growing political clout make it a singular target of criticism and suspicion. China could face the wrath of 1.8 billion people, from Pakistan to Vietnam, served by those eight Tibetan rivers.

Only China, along with Turkey, has refused to sign a key 1997 U.N. convention on transnational rivers. And China gave no notice when it began building three dams on the Mekong — the first completed in 1993 — or the $1.2 billion Zangmu dam, the first on the mainstream of the Brahmaputra which was started last November.

Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, warned: "Since millions of Indians use water coming from the Himalayan glaciers… I think you (India) should express more serious concern. This is nothing to do with politics, just everybody's interests, including Chinese people."

Beijing said that the bulk of water from the Tibetan rivers springs from downstream tributaries, with only 13-16% originating in China, and that the dams can benefit their neighbors, easing droughts and floods by regulating flow, and that hydroelectric power reduces China's carbon footprint.

For some of China's neighbors have a host of other dams built or planned for downstream countries and feel they may look hypocritical if they criticize China too loudly.

But at the grass roots, and among activists and even some government technocrats, criticism is expressed more readily.

Beijing is signaling that it will relaunch mega-projects after a break of several years in efforts to meet skyrocketing demands for energy and water, reduce dependence on coal and lift some 300 million people out of poverty.

"There is no alternative to dams in sight in China," says Ed Grumbine, an American author on Chinese dams. China failed to meet its hydroelectric targets and is now playing catch-up in its 2011-2015 plan while striving to get 15% of energy needs from non-fossil sources, mainly hydroelectric and nuclear.

Because the Himalayan glaciers are melting due to global warming, India's Strategic Foresight Group last year estimated that in the coming 20 years India, China, Nepal and Bangladesh will face a depletion of almost 275 billion cubic meters of annual renewable water.

Some analysts believe China will divert water from Tibet to its dry eastern provinces, possibly rerouting the Brahmaputra away from India.

Kerala: a State in India with a Difference

by Carl Haub

Kerala, a narrow strip of territory along India's southwest coast, has long been one of India's most educated and progressive States. Its total fertility rate (TFR) is only 1.7 children per woman, a distinction it shares with its neighbor Tamil Nadu and a TFR lower than the U.S. and many European countries.

The state has a population of 33.4 million, and has grown by only 1.5 million since the 2001 Census. Kerala labor unions, unusual in India, largely due to the ruling Communist Party of India. As a result, few companies wish to locate there so many workers opt to leave to work in the Gulf and send remittances home.

In Cambodia, Women Fear Death at Childbirth

In Cambodia, home to 14 million people, giving birth is costly, risky and not safe for the mothers and the babies, with five women dying every day during childbirth, according to U.N. reports.

The high death toll is due to lack of sufficient midwives, limited health care centres, the cost of health services, and a bias in remote rural areas towards untrained traditional birth attendants.

The local Khmer language has an expression about the dangers of childbirth: 'crossing the river' likens childbirth to "the risk and the danger of crossing a river, a totally uncertain experience."

Philippines: Church Leaders Return to Talks, Agree to Sex Ed

At a high-level palace meeting withwith President Aquino, Church officials led by the Manila Archbishop acknowledged that sex education was necessary for teenagers and even for children who are on the eve of puberty aged 11 or 12.

The meeting was part of the continuing dialog with the administration on the controversial reproductive health (RH) bill that the Church strongly opposes.

Church officials suggested that the sex education being proposed by the RH bill should be accompanied by values formation, and that these should be taught in a graduated manner so as not to overwhelm young children. In typical modules the scientific techniques on reproduction were presented but nothing about values, nothing about discipline, and self-control.

Focus group discussions also need to be conducted on the so-called responsible parenthood bill, which is different from the RH bill that is already in the final stages of approval at the House of Representatives. Mr. Aquino told the priests that there would likely still be disagreements between the government and the Catholic leaders on the responsible parenthood bill.

For instance, the use of condoms, artificial contraceptives. It is the role of the state to provide all means of family planning to citizens, especially to the disadvantaged.

There was agreement at the meeting that condoms aren't abortifacients but the Church leaders still had concerns about them being distributed as contraceptives.

Serious Population Boom Threatens Indonesia

In Indonesia, the National Population and Family Planning Board (BKKBN) stated that the uncontrolled population boom could pose a serious threat to Indonesia due to its negative impacts on various sectors and immediate efforts are needed to suppress the population growth rate.

"The uncontrollable population growth can pose a serious threat and the outcome of an Indonesian population census in 2010 has clearly shown the signs of a population explosion."

Indonesia's population has increased 32.7 million in a decade, to 237.6 million, with a growth rate of 1.49%.

Trash, flooding and traffic congestion in residential areas, plus clean water, air and climate change issues are impacts of rapid population growth.

Sugiri, the head of BKKBN said: "You can imagine what will happen if the population continues to grow and approach 500 million." If the population growth rate remains at 1.49% it can be predicted that by 2045 the population reached 450 million.

"At that time the world population is projected to be nine billion people whereas one in every 20 people in the world is Indonesian," he said. "The high number of children will reduce the ability of human capital investment in the family, which will affect education and public health."

A large population with low human resources would destroy the the quality of natural resources, he said.

Pakistan: Overpopulation Burdens Economy and Environment

At 180 million people, Pakistan is the sixth most populous country in the world and fourth in Asia.

The Pew Research Center estimated that by 2030 Pakistan's population is expected to grow to 256 million, with an average annual rate of growth of 2.77%, one of the highest in the world.

Half of Pakistan's people are at risk of food shortages due to a recent surge in world food prices, according to the World Food Program. The price of wheat flour has more than doubled over three years. 24% of the population live below international poverty line. The inflation rate is 14.17% (2010) and the public debt is Rs9.473 trillion. The frequent increase in oil, electricity and gas tariffs has exerted an upward pressure on the general price level.

Overpopulation is putting a strain on the environment, infrastructure, and the country's natural resources. Industrial pollution, soil erosion, deforestation, rapid industrialisation, urbanisation, and land degradation are all worsening problems. Over-exploitation of the country's resources, be it land or water and the industrialisation process has resulted in environmental degradation of resources.

Air pollution kills tens of thousands every year, while many more suffer from breathing ailments, heart disease, lung infections and even cancer. Coal dust, or wood fires and unfiltered diesel engines are the most lethal forms of air pollution.

Millions of people suffer from diseases because of having no access to clean and drinking water. Waterborne diseases such as diarrhoea, malaria and cholera are the main killers in Sindh province. Millions of people lack access to basic sanitation facilities which include clean sewerage services, toilets and wash basin.

The River Indus is being polluted from millions of litres of sewage, industrial and agricultural wastes. Heavy loads of biological and chemical pollutants usually enter the River Indus, to be consumed in some manner by the downstream user.

Sadly, our dangerously high rate of population growth is unaccompanied by complementary levels of economic expansion. One of the greatest problems of Pakistan is that many of them raise too many children without adequate income and plans on how to cater for them. Babies are now being abandoned at an alarming rate. This has proved that families should cut their coat according to their size.

The need of the hour is to intensify the family planning programme in the country. Pakistan should not wait till the population poses a greater danger like in China and India, before they act.

The ulema play a motivating role and change the social attitudes of the people towards gender equality and family size. And the government will have to improve the contraceptive delivery services in the country.

Get Men in the Delivery Room, Say Bangladesh's First Midwives

One out of 500 women die in childbirth in Bangladesh. Even though there is no law forbidding men to enter the delivery room, father's mother or another senior female member of the family provides the support, not fathers - an attitude that needs to change, say the country's first midwives.

Bangladesh, which is still heavily reliant on community skilled birth attendants, who lack the skill and the authority to perform more complicated deliveries, has started training midwives, who say "Men need to be involved in the labour process if we are to reduce maternal mortality."

"If could see firsthand the complications of childbirth, they would be more likely to send their pregnant wives to proper medical facilities and less likely to insist on early childbirth after marriage." 75% of deliveries take place at home, and the average age of women having their first child is just 16 years, according to the UN.

Even Age Isn't on Japan's Side

Japan was quick to recover from previous disasters: the Kobe earthquake in 1995 as well as from the World War II (1939-1945) due to rapid improvement in productivity aided by technological advances and supported by a relatively younger, well-educated and hard-working population. A period of rapid population explosion, especially in the working age group, supported growth dynamics. In 1960, the Japanese economy was 1.6 times smaller than the UK and 12 times smaller than the US. By 1970, when Japan had a dependency ratio as low as 45, the economy had grown past the size of almost all European economies and contributed 7% of world GDP.

Now, with the uncertainty on the extent of the damage caused by the earthquake, tsunami and escalating nuclear crisis, just when the economy was beginning to recover from the recession of the last two years, Japan no longer enjoys the demographic dividend of a young population. Its shrinking workforce and rapidly ageing population could constrain a speedy recovery from the current calamity.

Japan's economic growth rate stood at 3.9% for 1980 - 1989 and reduced thereafter, stagnating at 2%. From 2000 onwards the working age force started shrinking, and played a vital role in lowering growth the growth rate to 1.6% in 1990-2000s. Even total population has begun to fall since 2007 and by 2015, Japanese working population would be close to what it was in 1995.

About 31% of Japan's population is 60 years or over, as compared to a mere 9% (8 million) in 1960. The working age population, which rose to 80 million in 1995 from 56 million in 1960 has fallen to 72 million in 2010. By 2015, this figure is estimated to fall to 68 million. The overall dependency ratio (ratio of number of individuals aged below 15 and above 60 divided by the number of individuals aged 15 to 59), which reduced to 57% in 1995 from 64% in 1960, has risen to 76% in 2010 and is estimated to increase to 83% in 2015.

With a marked decrease the in productive population, the contribution of labour input to economic growth could subside. In addition, if the savings rate in the country starts to fall with declining wage earners and an increasing percentage of aged population, investment and hence contribution of capital input to growth could wane, thereby affecting long-term growth potential. Also, as population size decreases, a prolonged period of stagnation could return. A smaller workforce will also contribute less to the country's tax collections, as an ageing population pressurises on the fiscal front.

Japan's economic recovery also rests on the restoration of power supply. The earthquake and tsunami have severely affected the country's nuclear power generation capacity. For a nation with around 25% dependency on this form of energy, the restoration of its nuclear power stations and subsequent recovery of electricity is crucial to get the economy back on its feet.

The next few years will test Japan's resilience in terms of raising productivity, pushing consumption and investment demand, and ultimately raising the country's growth potential. In contrast, the burden of an ageing population on social security provision and fiscal liabilities remain high. The Japanese government has limited choices to address this widening gap-either expand the labour force or improve labour productivity, none of which can be immediately addressed.

Once the restoration activity begins, the labour force may need to be expanded. This challenge may result in the reform of Japan's immigration policy, allowing more foreign labour into the country to help reconstruct the nation.

Bangladesh's Census

Bangladesh is a country the size of the American state of Iowa, and its population, at over 150 million, is bigger than Russia's. Its cities are growing twice as fast as its villages; and the slums twice as fast as the cities. Bangladesh is the world's most densely populated large country, and its capital, Dhaka, is the fastest-growing city in the world. Projections indicate there will be another 90 million mouths to feed before the population stabilizes, perhaps by 2050.

Bangladesh has started its fifth population census since independence. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has put the population at 164 million.

Priest Likens Church Pressure Vs RH Bill to the Inquisition

In the Phillipines, where Catholic bishops strongly oppose the Reproductive Health (RH) bill, one of the clergy's leading intellectuals says that attempts of some members of the Church to dissuade the public from supporting the bill is "reminiscent of the Inquisition."

Jesuit priest Fr. Joaquin Bernas, S.J., said a sector of the Church is giving Catholic religion a bad name by trying to impose Catholic beliefs on everyone. One ordinance, for example, requires a doctor's prescription when buying artificial contraception like condoms.

Bernas is a Dean Emeritus of the Ateneo Law School, a law degree holder and a prominent constitutionalist. "When it comes to contraception, the nation divides mainly along religious lines," he said. "The official Catholic teaching is that artificial contraception is immoral. Other religions believe in good faith otherwise." ... "Seeking to impose Catholic belief and practices on non-Catholics and others violates freedom of religion," he said.

Pakistan: Unsung Heroines Bring Health Care to Villages

The lady health worker (LHW) wears a black gown that shows only her eyes, she is shod in comfortable slippers and lugs a large black bag. She visits the city's poorest communities, visiting as many as 10 homes everyday, helping to raise awareness and improve maternal and child health.

She carries an assortment of medical supplies: oral rehydration salts, bandages, condoms, contraceptive pills, iron and folic acid tablets, and so on.

Employed by the government?s National Programme for Family Planning and Primary Health Care, she may be the sole breadwinner in her family.

Launched in 1994, the programme now has 100,000 LHWs covering 60% of the population - the biggest outreach intervention in South Asia.

These women range from congested cities to far-flung and underdeveloped rural areas. Their work includes campaigns like administering polio drops to children, plus neonatal tetanus, measles, tuberculosis, and malaria control.

Their work is particularly important in the rural areas where 75% of Pakistan's population live, and a hike of a couple of hours to as much as a day may be required to reach a health clinic. Often customs prevent women from seeking health services without being chaperoned by a male family member.

In Afghanistan, U.S. Shifts Strategy on Women's Rights as it Eyes Wider Priorities

Last year the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) sought bids for a $140 million land reform program in Afghanistan, insisting that the contractor meet these goals: The number of deeds granting women title had to increase by 50%; there would have to be regular media coverage on women's land rights; and teaching materials for secondary schools and universities would have to include material on women's rights.

Those concrete targets were stripped before the contract was awarded. Now, the contractor only has to perform "a written evaluation of Afghan inheritance laws," assemble "summaries of input from women's groups" and draft amendments to the country's civil code.

This removal of women's rights requirements also took place in a $600 million municipal government program awarded last year, reflecting a shift in USAID's approach in Afghanistan. Now the agency is moving toward more attainable measures.

The director of USAID's Office of Afghanistan and Pakistan Affairs said "The women's issue is one where we need hardheaded realism. There are things we can do, and do well. But if we become unrealistic and overfocused . . . we get ourselves in trouble."

Child Marriage Still Prevalent: UNICEF

Two-thirds of female adolescents are still getting married before the age of 18 in Bangladesh, with 30% getting married before reaching the age of 15, says a new UNICEF report: 'The State of the World's Children 2011: Adolescence An Age of Opportunity'. The percentage of child marriage in Bangladesh is one of the highest in the world.

One-third of teenage girls bear children, and the adolescent fertility in the poorest quintile is double that in the richest quintile of the population.

90% of marriage to female adolescents in Bangladesh was per their parent's decision.

According to the UNICEF global report, around 335 million adolescents live in South Asia while there are 33.9 million in Bangladesh, which is one fourth of country's population.

Investing in the world's 1.2 billion adolescents aged 10-19 now "can break entrenched cycles of poverty and inequality," the report said.

The 33% drop in the global under-five morality rate shows that many more young lives have been saved; in most of the world's regions girls are as likely as boys to go to primary school; and million of children now benefit from improved access to safe water and critical medicines such as routine vaccinations.

On the other hand, more than 70% of adolescents of lower secondary age are currently out of school, and at the global level, girls still lag behind boys in secondary school participation.

Without education,adolescents cannot develop the knowledge and skills they need to navigate the risks of exploitation, abuse and violence.

Bangladesh is planning to eliminate child labour in the country and to set up 'Adolescents Clubs'.

Philippines: As RH (Reproductive Health) Moves to Plenary, Women Tell Bishops: 'Respect Our Right to Life'

The Philippines House of Representatives session when the much awaited plenary debate for the highly debated reproductive health bill was set to be delivered was suspended, disappointing a group of women advocates pushing for the passage of House Bill 4244 or the "Responsible Parenthood (RP), Reproductive Health (RH) and Population Development Act of 2011" have appealed to Catholic bishops to respect women's right to life.

The NGO Democratic Socialist Women of the Philippines (DSWP) has expressed concern that Catholic bishops have been issuing statements on many issues but never a thing on addressing maternal deaths.

The Bishops are never concerned about "arresting maternal deaths. They say they are against the re-imposition of the death penalty, but seem not to care about the on-going massacre of poor Filipino women," a representative said. The deprivation of life-saving reproductive health services is like a death sentence hanging over the head of poor women.

"Even from a purely utilitarian point of view, this means: less human resource for the nation and more financial assistance needed for the orphaned family. The nation loses if we do nothing and allow the death of 11 mothers every day, due to pregnancy and pregnancy-related complications."

According to the DSWP, an effective Family Planning (FP) program can dramatically reduce maternal deaths by 32%. "This is because FP prevents mistimed, too early, too frequent, and too late pregnancies, and high risk pregnancies that have high probability of having complications."

A Guttmacher Institute study has shown that for every peso spent on FP, the state can save from three to one hundred pesos in addressing pregnancy and childbirth-related problems.

"If bishops are truly against the death penalty, they should be with us in working for the immediate passage of the RH bill into law".

Nepal: Breaking the Taboo

In Nepal, in 1996, a Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) of 539 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births was reported. The number was reduced to 281 by 2006, representing a decline of 48% over a period of ten years.

In September 2010, Nepal became the recipient of a UN Award from among 49 least developed countries for the significant MMR reduction and subsequent contribution towards achieving UN Millennium Development Goal 5, which aims to improve maternal health by reducing the MMR by three quarters and achieving universal access to reproductive health by 2015.

The Nepal MMR is the outcome of coordinated efforts in executing various targeted programmes and projects by governmental and non-governmental organisations, but it also has coincided with the period when abortion was legalised in 2002, so many health sector stakeholders have linked the achievement to abortion policy reform.

According the World Health Organisation (WHO), more than 19 million abortions worldwide are unsafe. And anywhere from 10%-50% of women undergoing these abortions requires medical care for severe complications later, with more than 68,000 dying each year.

Unsafe abortion predominantly exists where abortion is illegal, or where it is legal but safe services are inadequate, particularly in Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and Asia.

Because of the stigma attached to abortion, women and girls in rural areas prefer to use traditional remedies, which beyond being unsafe, sometimes can be fatal. Unsafe abortion causes half of the maternal deaths in Nepali hospitals even today. Statistics on abortion suggest that unsafe abortion in Nepal was widely practiced as a family planning method before its legalization.

When abortion was legalised in 2002, a woman was allowed to terminate a pregnancy of up to 12 weeks of gestation, or longer (up to 18 weeks) in the event of rape or incest, or anytime if carrying the child puts the life of the mother at risk. There were a drastically increased number of registered abortions after abortion was legalised.

Providing better and equitable access to safe abortion has become even more important considering the still high fertility rate among adolescents. About 21% of adolescent girls are already pregnant or become mothers of their first child by the time they are 15-19 years old.

Empowering rural youth by providing formal and informal education on sexual and reproductive health and family planning would be an effective strategy to enable adolescent girls to make informed decisions on timely marriage, planned pregnancies and safe motherhood.

An intervention strategy featuring additional service centers, increased awareness-raising and targeted advocacy initiatives and capacity-building of female community health volunteers will help limit not only the number of fatal cases from unsafe abortion but also reduce unplanned pregnancies.

Law and Custom Press Afghan Women's Shelters

New rules being drafted by the Afghan government speak to the suspicions that women's shelters encourage girls to run away from home and at worst are fronts for brothels.

The changes in the law will deter the most vulnerable women and girls from seeking refuge, by requiring a woman to justify her flight to an eight-member government panel, which would determine whether she needed to be in a shelter or should be sent to jail or back home, where she would be at risk of a beating or even death. She would also have to undergo a physical exam that could include a virginity test.

Women's advocates see the effort as an example of government pandering to religious and social conservatives as President Hamid Karzai's administration starts reconciliation efforts with insurgents. Women's rights may be the first area in which the government makes compromises.

Manizha Naderi, the director of Women for Afghan Women, which runs three shelters and five family counseling centers around the country, says "Domestic violence is cultural and it takes time to change and it will change, but women need a safe place when they are a victim of violence."

Practices associated with the Taliban era, like arranged marriages for child brides, public flogging and mutilation of women, continue in rural areas.

Today, about 14 women's shelters exist, financed by a mix of international organizations, private donors and Western governments. Women's advocates fear a government-appointed panel will not be able to stand up to pressure from power brokers or others who may want their daughters sent home so that they can be punished in accord with Afghan customs. Even fleeing an abusive marriage is seen as bringing shame on a woman's family.

Under the new rules nongovernmental organizations would no longer run shelters. The Afghan cabinet appears to have given a clear order that all shelters should be run by the government.

The minister of labor, social affairs, martyrs and the disabled, Amina Afzali, was upset about the shelters' high profile in discussing abuse. Such publicity "humiliates us in the eyes of the world," she said.

In 90% of cases when girls return from the shelters to their villages, they will not be accepted by the community and will be suspected of having committed adultery, said a conservative member of Parliament would wants the shelters closed altogether.

China Says Its Population Has Passed 1.34 Billion

Author: ALEXA OLESEN

China announced that its population grew to 1.34 billion people last year marking a modest jump for a massive population.

China added about 6.3 million people last year. A more accurate figure is expected to be released within the next few months after the government tallies the results of its 2010 census.

The decline in growth could help convince policy makers to relax the government's strict family planning limits.

Since 1979, the government has limited families in cities to one child and rural parents to two to control its population.

"China's population now is mainly growing because people are living longer, not because people are having lots of babies," said Cai Yong, an expert on China's population in the U.S..

The U.S. Census Bureau has projected it will peak at slightly less than 1.4 billion in 2026, with India overtaking China as the world's most populous nation in 2025.

Experts attribute the slowing growth rate to the strict family planning limits and to the country's urbanization and growing prosperity. The government says its family planning rules have prevented more than 400 million births since it was implemented three decades ago.

"To have a stable society, you better start now, to think ahead of time because it takes 20 to 30 years to have another generation come down the line," Cai said.

13 Million Abortions a Year in China

Nearly a quarter of the world's abortions happen in China. Abortions in China peaked in the 1990s, with official figures saying 14 million were performed.

Abortion has long been the instrument of choice for married couples who do not want daughters and for officials enforcing China's one-child policy for the past 30 years.

It used to be that older, married women were the largest group getting abortions. But today it is mostly younger and unmarried women.

Ms Lily Liu, the Beijing-based country director of Marie Stopes International, a sex health charity, explained: due to better nutrition, girls reach puberty - and possibly become sexually active - earlier, at age 12-1/2 in the 1990s compared with 14-1/2 in the 1970s. And they are getting married later.

In a study it was found that more than 22% of young women were having premarital sex and more than half of this number did not use contraceptives. 20% of these sexually active women have gotten pregnant at least once, and 90% of these aborted the baby.

Another study of women aged 20 to 29 in major cities including Beijing and Shanghai found the abortion rate to be 62%. Only 2% of the women had used contraceptives. And another study showed that 90% of young women have had at least one abortion. One even had 11 within three years.

Most likely these women - migrant workers, white-collar workers and students - were more fearful of parental anger and the stigma of having a child before marriage than of having an abortion.

It is inexpensive and about a four hour procedure to get an abortion in China. But there are possible harmful health effects of abortion.

Most analysts agree that the lack of sex education is to blame. Only 3% of parents talk to their daughters about sex, says one poll. Another poll found that 85% of students learn about sex on the Internet.

Last year, several universities in Shanghai held their first-ever sex education talks, attracting packed audiences. But cheap contraceptives are not available to students.

China Urges Int'l Community to Promote Gender Equality Legislation

The 55th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, the global policy-making body dedicated exclusively to gender equality and the advancement of women, was held from Feb. 22 to March 4 at the UN headquarters in New York.

Song Xiuyan, vice chair-person of the All China Women's Federation, said that the international community should continue to strengthen its efforts to enhance women's economic situation and political status, improve women's participation in society, education and labor market, eliminate violence against women, and guarantee women's rights and interests.

Song said the launching of UN Women, formally known as the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, clearly indicates the great importance that different parties have attached to, and the broad consensus reached on women issues.

She proposed that the UN Women should be committed to the realization of women's full development, with more input being made to alleviate poverty among women and to improve their education and health.

Condition of Adolescents in India Among the Worst

Twenty per cent of the world's adolescent population live in India, which has one of the worst track records in health and education, according to UNCIEF in its 'State of the World's Children' report.

47% of girls from 11 to 19 are underweight. 56% of girls and 30% of boys in the same age group are anaemic which places the country along with the least developed African nations.

This same age group comprises 25% (243 million) of India's population. Almost 40% of the section is out of school and 43% get married before the age of 18, out of whom 13% become teenage mothers.

86% of those 11-13 and 64% of 14-17 year olds attend school.

Fortunately the number of girls getting married before the age of 18 years has decreased from 54% in 1992-93. But the figure is the eight highest in the world and Pakistan fares much better with just 25% of girls getting married before the age of 18 years.

6,000 adolescent mothers die every year and there is a 50% higher risk of infant deaths among mothers who are under 20 years.

Correct knowledge of HIV/AIDS is held by 35% of adolescents boys and 28% of girls.

One-third of adolescents report physical abuse and and the same number report sexual abuse.

A representative said "health and reproductive services and knowledge" must be provided to every person in this age group.

Indonesia: Family Planning Board Expects Heavy Burden as Population Continues to Grow

Indonesia is expected to pass the United States to become the third-most populous country in the world. It's current population is 237 million, and growing at a rate of 1.49% says the National Family Planning Coordinating Board (BKKBN). The country's population will more than double to 475-500 million by 2050. "We already have the fourth-largest population in the world, but in terms of the quality of life for all citizens we are in 108th place out of 188 countries."

Sugiri Syarief, head of BKKBN, warned that Indonesia's high fertility rate was partly because of high poverty rates and poor families having more children. He warned the poverty rate would only increase as the population grew, hampering economic development and leading to a host of other problems. "The population boom will burden the central and regional governments in terms of having to provide more food, health care, education, jobs, transportation and other services for a far bigger population."

Sugiri suggested relocating the population to spread it more equally over the country to prevent overcrowding and overexploitation of resources in urban areas. He also called for revival of the national family-planning program that fell out of favor after the ouster of former President Suharto. This family-planning policy saw population growth fall from 2.32% between 1971 and 1980 to 1.97% from 1980 to 1990. The BKKBN will work with the Indonesian military (TNI), state-owned ferry operator Pelni and the State Ministry for the Acceleration of Development in Underdeveloped Regions to boost the family planning campaigns in remote locations.

Bangladeshi's Rural Sector May Collapse Within Decades: Analysts

A UNFPA report said that Bangladesh will face a severe food crisis within a couple of decades due to over exploitation and rapid decline of cultivable land due to excessive population and climate change. Bangladesh has 164.4 million people, growing at rate of 1.4%. The country's projected population is 222.5 million by 2050.

An agriculture expert says the country will have to adapt a multiple crop system in agriculture as it has no other alternative to increase food production. "Now, we are cultivating the High Yielding Varieties (HYV) of crops to produce more food grains, which increased the food production in the country. But it will never be the final solution to address the country's food demand considering the rapid growth of population." "The country's agriculture cannot survive in future as a whole."

The price of food grains has reached a record level in the global market, which also affects the local market. The food price in the country is increasing gradually, which is a sign of emerging food crisis. Food grains production has been decreasing not only in the country but all over the globe due to climate change. "Wheat production has declined in Russia, Canada and Australia due to drought in recent years and this trend will continue."

The agricultural production has already declined in the country due to drought, flash flood, storm surge, cyclone and erratic rainfall.

Cultivable land has declined from 21 million acres in 1980 to 18 million acres in 2007, most of it going to housing, infrastructure and the industrial sector. And, as people are exploiting the land, its fertility is falling gradually.

If the sea level rises meter, around 20-25% of agricultural land in the coastal belt will go under the sea water, which could happen within the next 30-40 years.

44,000 farmers have left agriculture farming per year over the last four decades. Around 155,000 fishermen have been forced to change their ancestral occupation per year over the last two decades.

Greg Mortenson: Five Cups of Hope, Heart, and Humility

Editor note: Recently Greg Mortenson has been in the news, with the television program 60 Minutes claiming he lied about certain things. One of the charges claims that 30 of Mortenson's 140 schools were found to be in shambles or built by someone else. I believe in Mortenson's work, his principles, and his vision, and if only 50 of his claimed 140 schools for girls are in operation, he is still a success, in my mind.

Greg Mortenson wrote the best-seller Three Cups of Tea and the sequel Stones into Schools, about establishing schools for girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The author spoke to Mortenson as part of the National Geographic Traveler Conversations series and was impressed by his genuineness, honesty, humility, and devotion to serving others.

In addition, he has given us five lessons that are needed in this world of diverse cultures:

1. "The greatest challenge that we face is teaching people about tolerance." Mortenson said: Cultivate an open mind: Try to understand what others are doing and why; try not to judge.

2. "We should spend more time talking with our elders and learning from them."

In more traditional societies like Afghanistan and Pakistan, elders are still revered as leaders and teachers. They act as bridges not just to the past but to the future too -- for their keen insight can often reveal the hidden perils or potentials of a path.

3. "Wherever you go, before you do anything else, drink three cups of tea."

This means honor, respect, appreciation, and understanding at the local level. Mortenson works from the ground up, making sure that each village agrees to and participates in each project. "Communities have to put sweat equity in our schools," he said. Because of this, while the Taliban have destroyed some 24,000 schools, 3/4 of them girls schools, none of his schools have been harmed.

4. "Most women in rural Pakistan and Afghanistan want two things -- their babies not to die and their children to have an education."

Mortenson's mentor, Haji Ali said: "My life's greatest sadness is that I never learned to read or write. My life's greatest hope is that my children will learn to read and write." In 2000, 800,000 kids were in school in Pakistan; now there are 9 million, including 2.8 million females.

5. "If you really want to change a culture, the answer is to educate girls."

Mortenson said: "The Taliban see a powerful threat in educating girls. They recruit from illiterate families. Before going to do jihad, a son has to ask the permission of his mother. Literate women are far less likely to give their sons blessing to do jihad." Improving female education lowers populations and infant deaths, and delays the marriage age of girls. Educated women are much more likely than men to return to their villages and become advocates for and implementers of local improvements.

Philippines: WHO Lauds Pope on Condom Stand

The World Health Organization welcomed the relaxation of the Vatican's stance against condom use.

Pope Benedict XVI said the use of condoms is acceptable to help prevent the spread of HIV and AIDS.

If used correctly and consistently, the male condom is the most efficient protection against the sexual transmission of transmitted infections, according to WHO

The papal statement would help ease the reluctance of several sectors to use condoms. The prevalence of HIV in Asia Pacific had reached 20% among sex workers and up to 30% among men having sex with men.

It was estimated that some 75 million men in Asia patronize sex from 10 million sex workers and, at the same time, have sex with 50 million regular or casual partners.

130,000 to 150,000 new infections related to high-risk lifestyle occur every year in the Western Pacific region.

It is estimated that some 1.4 million people in Western Pacific were diagnosed with the AIDS virus. Ten years ago, the number of cases was 680,000.

"While condom use remains the core strategy for preventing HIV and other sexually transmitted infections among sex workers, essential and affordable sexual and reproductive health services should also be made available to sex workers to address a host of other issues," WHO said.

Worldwide, some 33.4 million people are living with HIV.

Phillipine House Minority Leader Edcel Lagman welcomed the new papal statement on condom use, saying it signals the liberalization of the stand of the Catholic Church when it comes to condom use to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS. The moderation of the Church's position on condoms to prevent the spread of a deadly disease may ultimately evolve to include the use of condoms and other contraceptives to prevent high risk pregnancies," he added.

Lagman said "Family planning and contraception save lives by helping women avoid high risk pregnancies which often end in maternal and infant death or morbidity." Maternal deaths in the Philippines account for one out of every seven deaths of women of reproductive age. One in three deaths related to pregnancy and childbirth could be prevented if women who want to use contraception are given access to it."

Helping women plan their families can prevent one million infant and child deaths every year worldwide because closely spaced pregnancies threaten infant survival.

A pregnancy that is planned and wanted will not be aborted. More women can avoid unintended and mistimed pregnancies through effective family planning, the less the incidence of abortion will be, he said. Despite the endorsement from the Vatican, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines vows to continue opposing the RH bill "because that is our moral duty," said Batangas Archbishop Ramon Arguelles. rw

Midwife Training, Access Key to Saving Mothers' Lives

A new report, The State of the World's Midwifery 2011, from UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, says that up to 90% of maternal deaths worldwide could be averted by fielding 350,000 more midwives able to refer the worst complications to specialized care.

3.6 million lives could be saved by 2015 by training enough midwives and creating adequate facilities to deal with complications in the 58 developing countries where maternal and newborn deaths are highest.

Inadequate or insufficient health care causes 358,000 deaths annually of women who are pregnant or giving birth, 2 million newborns deaths within the first 24 hours of life, and 2.6 million stillbirths.

58 countries where 91% of all maternal deaths occur were examined and a major gap between the number of midwives available and those needed to save mothers' lives was found, as well as major discrepancies among and within countries in midwife quality, training, regulation and government policy awareness.

Thailand Persecuting the Victims

In Thailand the teen pregnancy rate here is the highest in Asia, despite what critics say is a punitive abortion law.

Women rights groups maintain that condemnation and legal punishment for abortion will not help ease the problem of unplanned pregnancy. Safe sex education and better services for pregnant women and young mums, they say, will.

Abortion is legal only when the pregnancy endangers a mother's life or when the pregnancy is caused by rape and incest. Otherwise, women who attempt abortion face a jail term of up to three years and/or a fine of up to 6,000 baht. Women who have an abortion also face harsh social stigma as sinners.

All previous attempts to amend the abortion law have failed due to fierce opposition from religious groups. But the anti-abortion law has failed to deter teenage pregnancy.

World Health Organisation figures show the global average number of pregnancies for every 1,000 girls in the 15-19 age group is 65. In Asia it is 56, but it rises to 70 in Thailand.

Abortion is inevitably a solution when unwed teenage girls face harsh social stigma in a society which fails to provide them with safe sex education, proper counselling and other services such as half-way homes for unwed mothers and foster and adoption services, said Nattaya Boonpakdee, coordinator of Women's Health Advocacy Foundation.

"Society still sees sex education as dirty talk about intercourse. Actually it is about gender relations, dating, the consequences of unsafe sex and how to protect yourself," she said.

Ms Nattaya said the abortion law is too narrow and forces women to seek abortion from underground abortion clinics.

Research shows that 60-70% of those seeking abortions do it because of economic and social pressures, she said. Many risk being fired or expelled from school when they are pregnant.

"Women face great health risks, even death, from underground abortion clinics because the safe and legal option is unavailable," she said.

Opponents insist the availability of legally safe and inexpensive abortions will aggravate the problem of teen pregnancy and abortion.

On the other hand, the Reproductive Health Bill allows pregnant students to continue in school during pregnancy and resume their studies after giving birth, promising a different approach.

Research has shown that when teenage girls see their friends fall pregnant and encounter difficulties in their lives as a result, they become more careful with their relationships.

While legal abortion remains too controversial, the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security has opted instead to focus on teen pregnancy prevention, using safe sex education, information campaigns run on social media networks, monitoring high-risk groups, counselling, shelters, occupational training and giving teen mothers the right to resume school after they give birth. rw

Philippines: Catholic Bishops Warn of 'Civil Disobedience' Over Contraceptives

Roman Catholic bishops yesterday warned of "civil disobedience" against the administration should President Benigno C. Aquino III fulfill a promise to hand out artificial birth control methods.

Monsignor Juanito S. Figura, CBCP secretary-general said while Church principles state civil allegiance to state laws, "... if a law or a state policy is against Christian teachings, persons, Christians, Catholics are not bound by conscience to obey that."

He identified the passage of the Reproductive Health (RH) Bill and the distribution of artificial contraceptives to justify civil disobedience.

Msgr. Pedro C. Quitorio III, CBCP media director, was also quoted in the statement as saying that the CBCP had only invoked civil disobedience once in its 65-year history.

Pablo Virgilio S. David, San Fernando de Pampanga auxiliary bishop, said: "Does President Aquino know that many of the artificial methods are aborti-facients which means they were designed not only to prevent conception but terminate a conceived child because once you already have a fertilized embryo you already have a human being."

He also criticized what he claimed was state preference to follow the path of highly developed countries on the issue.

"These countries have already taken a new approach to population management because they have already experienced a demographic winter," the 51-year-old prelate said, noting that developed countries may become totally dependent on migrant workers due to an ageing population.

Lingayen-Dagupan Auxiliary Bishop Renato P. Mayugba, said bishops anchor their statements based on the Constitution which calls for the protection of the unborn child from the time of conception.

The CBCP statement further said that Lipa Archbishop Ramon V. Arguelles called on the faithful in his ecclesial province "to prepare to mobilize the laity for mass actions against the movement of the Aquino government to push for the passage of the controversial Reproductive Health Bill and all population control measures."

In a text message from Italy, the archbishop said he supports the Catholic laity in Cebu against the planned introduction of artificial methods to families.

Mr. Aquino has said in a small town-like meeting during his working visit to the United States two weeks ago that he may consider contraceptive methods to address population growth.

Abigail D. Valte, deputy presidential spokesman, said over state-owned radio: "The President's stand is for responsible parenthood. The administration is not advocating one method over the other. We will support all family planning methods based on the parents' free choice. It is incorrect to label the President as pro-life or anti-life."

The House of Representatives in the 14th Congress had passed the RH bill on third and final reading, but its counterpart in the Senate remained pending at the committee level.

"What should be done is to wait for the bill to be discussed then at the committee level the Church can participate and put forth their arguments," Mr. Arroyo said.

Senator Edgardo J. Angara said in the same radio interview, that threats of excommunication against Mr. Aquino "is the worst sign of intolerance." "Excommunication threats are something said by people who have nothing to say so they just intimidate," Mr. Angara said.

"The question also is if whether we are willing to spend to manage our population or to spend to develop a productive work force. This is not just a simple question of condom or no condom," Mr. Honasan said. rw

Afghan Women 'Depend' on Foreign Troops

A leading Afghan women's advocate has warned that pulling Western troops out of Afghanistan will condemn mothers and children to suffer, and that foreign soldiers were needed for at least another five years in a country where extremists deliberately poison the drinking water at schools to scare away children.

Dr Yacoobi said "As soon as allied soldiers walk out and leave Afghanistan, the first blood shed will be women and children." She said security in Afghanistan had deteriorated but insisted progress was being made. "For years and years, women of Afghanistan have been abused and are very submissive," she said. "But in reality, the women of Afghanistan are very intelligent - brilliant. "Once you give them opportunity, people are more responsible, they are taking action and trying to solve problems on their own."

Others say peace in Afghanistan may be only possible once Western troops had withdrawn.

Dr Yacoobi's organisation, Afghan Institute of Learning, teaches women about basic hygiene, coping with complications from childbirth, and how to run a small business, such as embroidery or carpet weaving. The aim is to help Afghan women better understand their rights to protect themselves and strengthen families. "It's a reality, when you have money you have power," she said. rw

Beijing Asks Parents to Register Second Child

Beijing has urged parents to register the birth of their second child before Nov 1 - if they don't, they will be liable to pay fines.

China's family planning policies encourages urban residents to limit their family size to one child.

Families who register their second child now will face minimal fines, while those who fail to inform about the newborns will get no government benefit to raise them, China Daily reported.

'However, the revised penalties will be less than usual fines, which were often eight or nine times the average annual household income,' said Xi Kaili, spokesperson for the Beijing Municipal Commission of Population and Family Planning.

Unregistered children will also lose citizenship.

According to the Beijing Statistics Bureau, the average annual wage in the capital last year was 30,000 yuan ($4,413). The minimum penalty for breaking the policy is 90,000 yuan. rw

Australia Donates Birth Kits for Flood-hit Pregnant Pakistani Women

Australia has donated 1,962 safe delivery kits to Pakistan to support maternal and reproductive health services to displaced pregnant women in the flood-affected areas.

Community midwives and other skilled birth attendants will use these kits to conduct deliveries for women displaced by the floods. The UNFPA also has, in the area, mobile service vans which are fully equipped with doctors, paramedical staff and medical supplies being sponsored by UNFPA.

Additional Secretary of Ministry of Health Agha Nadeem recognized that in emergency situations like this, some aspects of health care like provision of maternity services to pregnant women are neglected and their lives are endangered.

Philippines Women's Groups Call for Legalised Abortions

More and more women would die from complications arising from unsafe abortions in the Philippines, warned the country's women's groups, as they called for abortions to be legalised.

According to the Centre for Reproductive Rights, more than half a million Filipino women undergo illegal abortions every year. Of these, an estimated 90,000 women suffer complications, with about 1,000 dying eventually. The women's groups said it is time for the predominantly Roman Catholic country to allow for safe and legal abortion, to save thousands of women from undergoing crude and unsafe procedures. They said that criminalisation of abortion has not prevented the procedure, but made it unsafe. In the Dr Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital, Mmore than half of the women who seek treatment are for complications arising from illegal and unsafe abortions. Most abortion cases were due to unwanted pregnancy.

It's either they don't want the pregnancy, or they have reasons like they want to go abroad so they induced it. They take some medications to remove the pregnancy," he said. Women's rights groups are hoping that the new Congress would be able to pass a controversial Reproductive Health bill, which would uphold the use of artificial contraceptives and institutionalise sex education in schools.

That would hopefully help prevent more cases of unsafe abortion in the country. rw

Philippines Women's Groups Call for Legalised Abortions

More and more women would die from unsafe abortions in the Philippines, warned the country's women's groups. According to the Centre for Reproductive Rights, more than half a million Filipino women undergo illegal abortions every year. Of these, an estimated 90,000 women suffer complications with about 1,000 dying eventually.

The women's groups said it is time for the predominantly Roman Catholic country to allow for safe and legal abortion, to save thousands of women from undergoing crude and unsafe procedures. "The criminalisation of abortion has not prevented the procedure, but made it unsafe. In all cases, the ban leads to one frightening direction - that of painful risky and potentially fatal methods of pregnancy termination," Centre for Reproductive Rights Melissa Upreti said. Although abortion is illegal in the Philippines, government hospitals are mandated to provide post-abortion care treatment to women.

In the Dr Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital for instance, more than half of the women who seek treatment are for complications arising from illegal and unsafe abortions.

Dr Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital Dr Emmanel Ganal said most abortion cases were due to unwanted pregnancy.

"Those that are induced are usually unwanted pregnancies. It's either they don't want the pregnancy, or they have reasons like they want to go abroad so they induced it. They take some medications to remove the pregnancy," he said. For now, women's rights groups are hoping that the new Congress would be able to pass a controversial Reproductive Health bill, that the influential Catholic Church opposed last year.

That piece of legislation would uphold the use of artificial contraceptives and institutionalise sex education in schools.

That would hopefully help prevent more cases of unsafe abortion in the country. rw

Help for Pregnant Women in Flood-Affected Pakistan

The health system in areas of Pakistan was disturbed by the recent flash floods, with 30 health facilities completely destroyed and no place to seek treatment for displaced persons.

The government in collaboration with WHO, Unicef, UNFPA, Pakistan Paediatrics Association and Pakistan Gynecologists and Obstetricians Association has begun identifing pregnant women and sick children and providing them immediate treatment. During the last four days, more than 200 displaced expecting mothers have been examined and given medication.

Mobile treatment programmes have helped uprooted women who were at the risk of giving birth to babies in dangerous circumstances, but they were referred to hospitals where they received treatment. "We have also health education and hygiene promotion sessions with the displaced population to avoid occurrence of opportunistic ailments," a doctor said.

300 children have undergone medical checkup. Most of them were given vitamin and other treatment.

Most of the women and children required food and clean drinking water. rw

Time Opinion Piece Examines Consequences of China's One-child Policy

Thirty years ago, China became "the only country in the world to make compulsory family planning a pillar of national identity" by limiting most couples to having one child.

While there is likely a connection between the single-child policy and double-digit economic growth rates, the downside is that China has "one of the planet's worst gender imbalances", largely due to male preference, where female fetuses are aborted.

As China sees a higher ration of bachelors, China risks all sorts of social plagues from criminal gangs to greater trafficking in women.

China's current fertility rate of 1.6 births per woman is far below the 2.1 replacement rate needed to maintain a steady population, and the nation's labor force is becoming increasingly saturated with older workers. rw

Philippines: Why Population Matters - Now More Than Ever

Philippine population is projected to reach 112 million in another ten years. Dr. Mercedes B. Concepcion was conferred the rank and title of National Scientist in recognition of her achievements in the field of demographics and population. She was instrumental in crafting the country's national population policy which led to the creation of the Commission on Population, on whose board she still sits. She has watched Manilla expand from a small suburb to the large Metro Manila. And she has seen the population policy regress. "We're back almost to where we were in the 1970s," notes Concepcion.

When Marcos was ousted, the total fertility rate went down to about 4.5. Now it's about 3.3. Conception hopes that incoming president Noynoy Aquino will take a more progressive stance on population. Under President Corazon Aquino, conservative elements in the Catholic hierarchy cut off funding and support for the program.

Concepcion says of the incoming president: "He cannot alleviate poverty without doing something about population. It has to be a two-pronged approach: population management on the one hand, and poverty reduction on the other. When you reduce poverty you have to improve education, job creation, improve infrastructure - they're all connected. Until you can create jobs that give a better income, the level of living will not improve. Income growth is important, and if you do not manage population so that income is divided among less people, you cannot move forward."

The Church agrees that something has to be done to improve the conditions of the poor, but they say it should not be done in terms of contraception, and that it can only be done with natural family planning.

"We are saying, let the couples decide. If they decide to use natural family planning, so be it, but if they opt for one of the artificial methods, help them." There is a difference of one child between the desired family size of the poor and their actual number of children. Until that gap is closed, we will still have a problem. rw

Nepal: Peer Education Effective

Peer education has been effective in school level in a district of Nepal after the schools started class on sex and reproductive health. The students have developed their habit to speak openly in this issue. Earlier, students, especially the girls used to hesitate to talk to people on the sex related topics.

Students have learned many things about HIV- AIDS and sex related issues through the peer education. They take active participation in the group discussion on reproductive health and sex related issues.

Earlier, people used to feel shy and hide their health problems. "Such an attitude has changed. People openly inform health workers about their diseases," said a local teacher. rw

Women and Higher Education Make Steady Progress in Afghanistan

Even some women from remote provinces of Afghanistan a allowed to attend Afghanistan's largest and most prestigious university in Kabul. However, professors are in short supply, and computers and other electronic equipment remain scarce. 7,000 students are enrolled; about 1,700 are women.

The number of young people enrolled in higher education has increased more than tenfold since 2001. Kabul University used to be a prime intellectual and scientific center for all of Asia, but during the mujahedeen phase of Afghanistan's civil war, from 1992 to 1996, the campus became a battlefield. When the Taliban came to power in 1996, many professors fled, and women were banned from education. Since Soviet forces invaded in 1979, about one million Afghans have died, and six million more have been displaced. 70% of the university professors had to leave the country controlled by Taliban.

Since the Taliban were routed by U.S. forces in 2001, changes for women have been sweeping. In some sections of the university young women wear jeans or other pants, jackets, and light scarves. There are women professors, some who travel the world and go to the U.S. for exchange programs.

However, in most Afghani provinces, mullahs do not allow women to study. That is one of the reasons why most of Afghanistan remains illiterate and unemployed. The majority of Afghan people still do not understand enough the value of education.

Female graduates often prefer to leave the country to look for work.

Foreign financial support provides significant resources for higher education here. The World Bank, Russia, and the USAID have invested or pledged money for higher education.

Mullahs Help Promote Birth Control in Afghanistan

Afghanistan has the world's second highest fertility rate, topped by Sierra Leone, and averaging more than six babies per woman despite years of war and a severe lack of medical care. UNICEF estimates only 10% of women use some form of birth control.

But now some mullahs in Afghanistan are distributing condoms. Others are quoting the Quran to encourage longer breaks between births by breast-feeding for two years. Use of the pill, condoms and injected forms of birth control rose to 27% over eight months in three rural areas - up to half the woman in one area - once the benefits were explained one-on-one by health workers, according to UNICEF.

It is important to women, who do not want to be pregnant now, to prevent death from an unwanted pregnancy - "especially when we could have helped her," said lead author Dr. Douglas Huber, who conducted the study for U.S.-based nonprofit Management Sciences for Health. "The fastest, cheapest, easiest way to reduce maternal deaths in Afghanistan is with contraception."

37 mullahs endorsed using contraceptives as a way to increase the time between births, some delivering the message during Friday prayers. "All the mullahs at the community level knew of these things that the Prophet Muhammad himself advised his followers." ... "This was not a hard sell."

Islam does not fundamentally oppose birth control. Everything from vasectomies to abortions are supported in various parts of the Muslim world.

Marie Stopes International has trained 3,500 religious leaders nationwide on the issue since 2003. It distributed more than 2 million condoms last year, some of them distributed by mullahs, at hours after clinics were closed.

The Health Ministry collaborated with nonprofit organizations to spread the word to both Sunni and Shia Muslims that using birth control was 300 times safer than giving birth in Afghanistan. They also involved husbands in the project and sought to dispel beliefs that contraceptives have negative side effects, such as infertility.

The Health Ministry plans to expand the program nationally and will invlove USAID, the European Union and the World Bank in the scale-up.