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with resources; it is a way of assuring – especially for women the basic human right of self-determination. The extent to which facilities tot exercising such choices are made available is itself a measure of a nation's development. In the same way, enhancinq human potential not only promotes development but helps to ensure the right of all to & full and dignified life.
I. LINKS WITH ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT
7. Population growth and development are linked in complex ways. Economic development generates resources that can be used to improve education and health. These improvements, along with associated social changes, reduce both fertility and mortality rates. On the other hand, high rates of population growth that eat into surpluses available for economic and social development can hinder improvements in education and health.
8. In the past, the intensification of agriculture and the production of higher yields helped nations cope with the increasing population pressures on available land. Migration and international trade in food and fuels eased the pressure on local resources. They permitted and helped sustain the high population densities of some industrialized countries.
9. The situation is different in most of the developing world. Tiers, improvements in medicine and public health have led to a sharp drop in mortality rates and have accelerated population growth rates to unprecedented levels. But fertility rates remain high; much human potential remains unrealized, and economic development is stalled. Agricultural intensification can go some way towards restoring a balance between food production and population, but there are limits beyond which intensification cannot go. (See Box 4–1.)
10. The very possibility of development can be compromised by high population growth rates. Moreover, most developing countries do not have the resources to wait for a few generations before population stabilizes. The option of migration to new lands is virtually closed. And low levels of economic and social development combined with changing trade-production relationships limit possibilities of using international trade to augment access to resources. Hence, in the absence of deliberate measures, the imbalance between population growth and resource development will worsen.
11. Population pressure is already forcing traditional farmers to work harder, often on shrinking farms on marginal land. just to maintain household income. In Africa and Asia, rural population nearly doubled between 1950 and 1955, with a corresponding decline in land availability.[1] Rapid population growth also creates urban economic and social problems that threaten to make cities wholly unmanageable. (See Chapter 9.)
12. Larger investments will be needed just to maintain the current inadequate levels of access to education, health care, and other services. In many cases, the resources required are
- ↑ Department of International Economic and Social Affairs (DIESA). World Population Prospects: Estimates and Projections as Assessed in 1984 (New York: United Nations, 1986).
