CARIN FOR THE FUTURE • • m VISIOn o policies The account of three seminars held in Africa and the Caribbean MEMBERS OF THE INDEPENDENT COMMISSION ON POPULATION AND QUALITY OF LIFE Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo Former Prime Minister, Portugal. President Monique Begin Former Minister of Health and Welfare, Canada. Ruth Correa Leite Cardoso Director of social programmes, Brazil. Karina Constantino-David President, Caucus of Development NGO Networks, Philippines. Eleanor Holmes Norton Member of Congress, United States. Bernard Kouchner Minister of Health, France . Maria Anna Knothe (7 994-96) President, Centre for Advancement of Women, Poland. Eva Letowska ( 1993-94) Former National Ombudsman, Poland. Vina Mazumdar Founder-Director, Centre for Women's Development Studies, India . Hanan Mikhaii-Ashrawi Member of Parliament, Palestine. Taro Nakayama Former Minister of Health , Member, Lower House of Diet, Japan. Olusegun Obasanjo Former Head of State, Nigeria. Jan Pronk Minister for Development Cooperation, Netherlands. Pu Shan Member, Standing Committee, Chinese People's Consultative Conference; President, Graduate School, Academy of Social Sciences, China. Augusto Ramirez-Ocampo Former Minister of Foreign affairs; Member of Parliament, Colombia. Juan Somavia Ambassador, Chair of United Nations World Summit for Social Development, Chile . Aminata Traore Minister for Culture and Development, Mali. Beale Weber Mayor of Heidelberg, Germany. Anders Wijkman Assistant Administrator, United Nations Development Programme, Sweden. Alexander N. Yakovlev Member, Academy of Sciences; Chair, Presidential Committee on Rehabilitation of Political Prisoners, Russia . The Independent Commission on Population and Quality of Life is an international commission set up in 1992 by seven governments {Canada, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and United Kingdom), by three international agencies {the United Nations Population Fund, the International Planned Parenthood Federation, and the World Bank), and by five maior private foundation s {Ford, Rockefeller, MacArthur, Hewlett, and Mellon). c ORT From vision to policies Rapporteur: Leonard Manneke-Appel Independent Commission on Population and Quality of Life Contents Presentation I. The South and East African Se minar p. 5 Dares Salaam, Tanzania II. The West African Seminar p. 37 Dakar, Senegal Ill. The Caribbean Seminar p. 79 Kingston, Jamaica PRESENTATION fter. the publication of its report Composed of 18 members, women and Canng for the Future - A radical men equally represented, coming in A agenda for positive change, the equal number from the Northern and Independent Commission on Population the Southern hemispheres, the and Quality of Life decided to contribute Independent Commission on Population directly, through regional seminars in and Quality of Life published its Report different parts of the world, to the in June 1996. In the drafting of its practical implementation of the Report, the Commission decided to give recommendations contained in its a preponderant role to testimonials report. taken in seven Public Hearings conducted within the four main regions The methodology followed in the (East and West Africa, North and Latin devolution of these recommendations to America, South and South-East Asia , those who can implement them is Eastern Europe) in 1993 and 1994. mainly based on assessing the viability of Thus the 'people's voice' became the the planned activities and identifying driving force in the Commission's effort realistic political measures to apply and bore out the theoretical them, taking into account regional perspectives on which the members of context and competences. For the most the Commission had reached unanimous part the Commission consults political agreement. Caring for the Future was leaders, scientists active in the various translated and published in French, research fields underpinning the Portuguese, German and Turkish in recommendations made in the report 1998. Others language editions are in and NGOs working to improve social preparation, among them Indonesian, structures. Korean, Russian, Sinhalese, and Spanish. The Commission follows on from other Three regional symposia were held in independent Commissions of the last countries of the Lome Convention, two decades which have, like it, looked t hanks to a generous contribution from at global problems which can only be the Directorate-General for Develop­ solved by putting in place actions ment (DG.VIII) of the Commission of the grounded in a perspective that is itself European Union, Brussels. The first global: the Commission on International seminar took place in Dar es Salaam, Development Issues (North-South Tanzania (19-21 September, 1997). Cooperation), chaired by Chancellor The second was held in Dakar, Senegal Brandt; the Commission on Environ­ (4-6 December, 1997). The third and last ment and Development, chaired by of this series took place in Kingston, Prime Minister Brundtland; the Jamaica (11-13 June, 1998). The present Commission on Global Governance , document contains the reports of these chaired by Prime Minister Carlsson. three symposia. , situated at the crossroads of popular The task assigned to the Commission by will, scientific knowledge and public the 15 sponsors (several governments, policy but most of all they are the multilateral organisations and foun­ continuous expression of the dynamism dations) was to elaborate a fresh vision of society in terms of human pheno­ of world population issues, with mena, life and death, stability and emphasis on both human rights and the mobility, and in the context of the sheer social and economic conditions affecting survival of humans and the Earth itself. changes in population. The years 2000-2030 are going to be From the outset, the Commission crucial for the achievement of a decent showed that the issue was for society to quality of life for all, respectful of the come to grips with all the elements fundamental dignity of every human contributing to dynamic population being. To that end, the primary and balance in harmony with the universal requirement which must be at environment and allowing life its the heart of the public policies of all fullness for the future generations. governments and which is a prerequisite The notion of quality of life was seen to for the free exercise by all of their be the goal once that the threshold of economic, social and political rights and quantity (beyond the level of mere duties, is the eradication of poverty. survival) was crossed. Population matters not only form a whole that is Report on THE SOUT AN ST AFRICAN SEMIN R CARING FOR THE FUTURE: FROM VISION TO POLICIES held by THE INDEPENDENT COMMISSION ON POPULATION AND QUALITY OF LIFE and THE UNIVERSITY OF DAR ES SALAAM in Dares Salaam, Tanzania, from 19 to 21 September, 1997 with the financial contribution of the Directorate-General for Development (DG. VIII) of the Commission of the European Union, Brussels, Belgium Ambassador Gertrude Monge/la gives the keynote speech at the Eastern and Southern Africa Seminar, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on 19 September 1997. From right to left: Prof. Em. Monique Begin, former Minister of Health and Welfare, Canada, and member of the Independent Commission on Population and Quality of Life; Ambassador Gertrude Monge/la; Vice-Chancellor M.L. Luhanga, University of Dar es Salaam. Table of Contents Page Introduction 8 Method and model of the seminar 9 The choice of Dar es Salaam 9 Eastern and Southern Africa invitees 9 Tanzanian invitees 9 Dar es Salaam participants 9 Commission members present 9 Themes of the workshops 9 A special roundtable meeting 9 The opening ceremony of the seminar 10 Contents of the working groups 1 1 Improving security 11 Protecting the ecosystems 12 Combating exclusion 13 Making population a government priority 14 Creating jobs in the context of the emergence of informal economy 14 Improving education for everyone 15 Advocating health care, including reproductive health care 16 Fostering the new social force of women 16 Harmonizing economic growth and quality of life through a new social contract 17 Finding new funding mechanisms 17 The round table meeting 19 Ethiopia 19 Malawi 19 Sudan 20 Uganda 21 Zambia 22 Zimbabwe 23 The most urgent recommendations 24 Conclusion 27 Annexes 28 'A UN Agenda for Development must be a plan of action to end poverty throughout the world. It must say: 'We, the peoples of the world, determined to save succeeding generations from the scourges of wa r, poverty, and underdevelopment, do hereby adopt this plan of action.' Mwalimu Julius K. Nyerere, UN General Assembly, New York, 7 June 1994 INTRODUCTI ON fter the publication of its Report entitled «Caring Everywhere people are uncertain of the future. for the Future »1 and in accordance with one of the The seminar can thus become the starting point for new Aterms of its mandate: 'reaching out to the large initiatives at the grassroots level, within the scientific and and broad constituency worldwide', the Independent business communities and in our own political institutions. Commission on Population and Quality of Life, decided to set up - in partnership with Universities - a series of The organisation of symposia in countries of the Lome symposia allowing representatives of a specific region to Convention has been made possible by a generous translate the 'fresh vision' expressed in the Report and its contribu tion from the Directorate-General for global recommendations into locally and regionally