The role and limitations of the Cairo International Conference on Population and Development

Population questions have always aroused controversy, but the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) which took place in Cairo in September 1994 was particularly contentious. Yet a consensus emerged among stakeholders previously holding quite divergent positions. A “new paradigm” in population policy emerged from the conference which shifted emphasis from a macro concern with rapid population growth to individual rights in sexuality and reproduction. This consensus has been widely praised, but was far from predictable. It was arrived at through a complicated inter-weaving of interests, movements and intellectual trends, as well as owing much to the particular nature of politics — both global and national — at the time. This paper is an analysis of the policy and substantive significance of the ICPD within the context of the history of UN-sponsored population conferences. It explores how the outcome of the conference was perceived by the various interest groups which played a major role in determining its policy directions, and enumerates some of the critiques of its Programme of Action from different perspectives. It reports on progress and obstacles to implementation of its recommendations within a changed political and economic context than that prevailing in 1994.