World population policies 2003

This report delineates Governments' views and policies concerning population and development for the 194 Member States and non-member States of the United Nations. In particular, it itemises policies in the areas of population size and growth, population age structure, fertility and family planning, health and mortality, spatial distribution and international migration. World Population Policies 2003 is similar in format to the 2001 and 1998 editions of National Population Policies -United Nations Publications, Sales Nos. E.02.XIII.12 and E.99.XIII.3) Prior to 1998, the date were published as the Global Review and Inventory of Population Policies (GRIPP). A major characteristic of United Nations international population conferences during the pas three decades has been, the emphasis placed on the monitoring of the implementation of their goals and recommendations. Accordingly, the Programme of Action adopted by the International Conference on Population and Development held at Cairo in 1994 recommended that actions should be taken "to measure, assess, monitor and evaluate progress towards meeting the goals of the present Programme of Action". The monitoring of population policies at the international level has a long history that foes back to the World Population Plan of Action adopted at the World Population Conference held at Bucharest in 1974. The Plan of Action was the first international instrument on population policy. Within the framework of the Plan of Action, population policies were defined in terms of all policies and programmes - including social and economic policies - concerned with the major population variables: fertility, mortality, internal migration and geographical distribution of population, and international migration.