Curbing Population Growth: An Insider’s Perspective on the Population Movement

280 Pages·1995·28.72 MB·English

by  Oscar Harkavy (auth.)

Curbing Population
Growth
An Insider's Perspective on the
Population Movement
The Plenum Series on Demographic
Methods and Population Analysis
Series Editor: Kenneth C. Land, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina
ADV ANCED TECHNIQUES OF POPULATION ANALYSIS
Shiva S. Halli and K. Vaninadha Rao
CURBING POPULATION GROWTH: An Insider's Perspective on the
Population Movement
Oscar Harkavy
THE DEMOGRAPHY OF HEALTH AND HEALTH CARE
Louis G. Pol and Richard K. Thomas
FORMAL DEMOGRAPHY
David P. Smith
HOUSEHOLD COMPOSITION IN LATIN AMERICA
Susan M. De Vos
HOUSEHOLD DEMOGRAPHY AND HOUSEHOLD MODELING
Edited by Evert van Imhoft~ Anton Kuijsten, Pieter Hooimeijer,
and Leo van Wissen
MODELING MUL TIGROUP POPULATIONS
Robert Schoen
THE POPULATION OF MODERN CHINA
Edited by Dudley L. Poston, Jr. and David Yaukey
A Continuation Order Plan is available for this series. A continuation order will bring delivery
of each new volume immediately upon publication. Volumes are billed only upon actual
shipment. For further information please contact the publisher.
Curbing Population
Growth
An Insider's Perspective on the
Population Movement
Oscar Harkavy
The Ford Foundation (Retired)
New York. New York
With Commentaries by:
Ansley J. Coale
Sheldon J. Segal
and
AmyOng Tsui
Springer Science+B usiness Media, LLC
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
On file
ISBN 978-1-4757-9908-8 ISBN 978-1-4757-9906-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4757-9906-4
© 1995 Springer Science+Business Media New York
Originally published by Plenum Press, New York 1995
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1 st edition 1995
10 98765432 1
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording, or otherwise,
without written permission from the Publisher
For Fran
"Demography" by Frances Harkavy
Preface
The international population movement, profoundly affected by the ebb and flow
of public concern with world population problems, is a distinctive social, political,
and organizational phenomenon. This book gives an account of that movement
from the perspective of a foundation staff person who was part of it for some 30
years.
The organized effort to curb high rates of population growth in the develop
ing world emerged haltingly in the 1950s, grew confidently in the midsixties and
early seventies, lost some of its self-assurance in the late seventies and eighties,
and has entered the nineties in search of a renewed sense of direction. Now the
main debate within the population movement is between those who are concerned
only with the health and welfare of the individual mother and her children, and
those who are convinced that the pressure of sheer numbers of people on a fragile
ecosystem must occupy the world's attention. The first group fears that the focus
on demographic numbers leads to coercive pressures on poor women to control
their fertility with little regard to their human rights or personal wishes. The latter
fears that relegation of family planning to one of many unmet needs of Third
World women-such as adequate education, health services, employment oppor
tunities, and above all empowerment-will blunt the effectiveness of the effort
to bring popUlation pressure under control.
More than 4 billion of the world's 5.7 billion people live in the developing
world and, even under optimistic assumptions as to improving control of fertility,
Third World population will not cease to grow until it reaches some 10 billion
by the end of the twenty-first century. The 10 billion projection assumes that
women in the developing world will on average reduce by 50 percent the number
of children that they will bear in their reproductive lifetimes. Under a less
optimistic-but also plausible-scenario, Third World population will not stabi
lize until it reaches 14 billion. Although rates of popUlation growth have been
ix
x
PREFACE
declining since the mid-1970s, the absolute numbers of people added to the
world's population continues to increase: the next 10 years will see net additions to
the world population of nearly 100 million a year, more than 90 percent of which
will occur in the poor nations of the world. The prospect of 6 to 10 billion more
people occupying the developing nations by the end of the next century leaves
little doubt that continued population growth remains one of the fundamental
problems facing humanity.
World population problems are not limited to high rates of growth in the poor
nations of the world. They include a host of other issues crucially affecting the
well-being of humankind. Among these are the flow of migrants and refugees,
within nations and across national boundaries; the metastatic growth of cities with
their burdens of congestion, pollution, slums, and social dysfunction; the chal
lenges facing a youthful population with inadequate employment opportunities,
or, conversely, an aging population in need of old-age pensions and health care.
But the great issue that energized the modem population movement from its
inception in the 1950s was the historically unprecedented growth of population in
the developing world brought about by rapid declines in infant and child mortality
after World War II.
A varied mix of individuals and institutions has been engaged in the popula
tion effort: opinion leaders, politicians, and bureaucrats in poor and rich countries;
public health and family planning workers; social and biomedical scientists;
international assistance agencies; universities and other research institutions;
pharmaceutical firms; voluntary organizations; womens' groups; and foundations
all dedicated to affecting the reproductive behavior of millions of men and
women.
Acknowledging the support so many gave me in writing this volume is a
risky business. I am certain to omit many key individuals whose help and inspira
tion over the years were of crucial importance; their indulgence is requested at the
outset.
First, my appreciation to leaders of the population movement who guided me
from my days as a green recruit in 1959. Most supportive among those were Frank
Notestein, Ansley Coale, Philip Hauser, and Parker Mauldin. A nostalgic bow to
the late, great Bernard (Barney) Berelson; fellow Berelson fans still preface
observations with "As Barney used to say ... " My debt and that of the entire
population movement to two outstanding scientists, Ronald Freedman and Shel
don Segal, will be obvious to those who read the text that follows.
There are many who made my 35 years at the Ford Foundation a rewarding
career. "Political will" is a sine qua non for a successful national family planning
program. By the same token, strong support from a foundation's leadership is
necessary if that organization is to mount an effective population program. My
gratitude to the Ford Foundation trustees and officers who provided that political
will. Especially supportive on a personal level were former President McGeorge
xi
PREFACE
Bundy and Vice Presidents F. F. "Frosty" Hill and David E. Bell. The foundation
generously provided a postretirement grant, administered by the PopUlation Coun
cil, that supported much of the research and some of the writing of this volume.
My special thanks to Deputy Vice President Barry Gaberman, who was respon
sible for the grant, to George Zeidenstein, the council's president, and to Wendy
Spero, who provided expert secretarial assistance at the council.
My immediate colleagues in the foundation's Population Program were, as
one observer remarked, "more of a family than a program." I have warmest
memories of Lyle Saunders, William Sweeney, and Ozzie Simmons, now passed
on. The whole roster of others is too long to record here, but I must acknowledge
the special contributions of Annie Southam, Gordon Perkin, Michael Teitelbaum,
Richard Mahoney, James Bausch, Davidson Gwatkin, Linda Atkinson, Robert
Wickham, Marjorie Horn, Janet McNeely, and Tim Rice.
My great appreciation to Ronald Freedman, Sheldon Segal, Thomas Merrick,
Susan Watkins, Moye Freymann and Fran Harkavy for their helpful comments on
all or parts of the manuscript and to Eliot Werner, Kenneth Land, Herman Makler,
and their colleagues at Plenum Press for improving the manuscript and nurturing
it to publication.
I am most grateful to Ansley Coale, Sheldon Segal, and Amy Tsui for agree
ing to write the essays concluding this volume. These commentaries offer authori
tative and illuminating insights on the population movement based on their several
fields of scholarship, thereby materially strengthening and extending my own
perspectives.
Finally, my deepest gratitude for the steadfast, loving support and clear
headed guidance given me over these many years by Fran, my wife and best
friend.