By Holy See Mission
Statement by H.E. Archbishop Celestino Migliore
Apostolic Nuncio, Permanent Observer of the Holy See
Economic and Social Council
40th session of the Commission on Population and Development
On Item 4:
The changing age structures of populations
and their implications for development
New York, 10 April 2007Mr Chairman,
Indicators continue to suggest that by 2050 the world’s population should
stabilize at about nine billion. Although this implies that national populations
will not need to be regulated as proposed by radical opinion in the past, this
Commission should continue to serve a useful purpose in monitoring the
demographic trends in all parts of the world. In this regard, policy goals and
the means to achieve them must remain sound and focused on the dignity of the
human person.
This fortieth session of the Commission coincides with the fortieth anniversary
of a document on population and development written by the late Pope Paul VI,
known as Populorum Progressio, that is, The Progress of Peoples. At a time when
the world was commonly divided into two blocs, East and West, the document
focused instead on peoples and societies, whose conditions were marked not by
being Eastern or Western, but by the levels of development and well-being in
some parts of the world, in contrast to the degree of poverty and
underdevelopment in others. The emphasis placed by the document on the
individual and on societies, both as the primary focus of development policies
and as protagonists of their own development, even today provides a sure guide
for demographic policies to promote a culture respectful of the rights of the
least-protected members of our human family, especially before birth and in
extreme old age.
The reports made to the Commission this year suggest that dependency ratios are
set to soar in some places, where an increasing number of elderly people will
lay a heavier burden on the active population. It is to be hoped that states
will work to foster respect for human life in all its stages and to find
solutions that are right and just, not merely pragmatic. Here in particular,
promoting solidarity between generations will be very valuable.
While by 2050 Europe is set to have an elderly dependency ratio similar to that
of Africa’s in the 1960s, Africa is set to have the lowest dependency ratio in
the world. This projection should hand that Continent an unprecedented advantage
in economic terms, as a young and numerous workforce should be available to it
until at least 2050, while the demographic dividend in most other regions will
have run out. To assure that Africa will not miss this window of opportunity for
economic development, it must be helped, inter alia, to invest in its human
capital and infrastructure to underpin economic growth. Because many of this
future work force are already born and are already of school age, my delegation
believes that the most decisive investment to be made here is in education. The
UN Secretariat estimates that to achieve primary education for all by 2015 would
cost nine billion dollars estimated in 1998 dollar value. By any estimate, this
can hardly be considered a high price to pay for such a prize.
Moreover, education, especially for girls and young women, can have a notable
impact on population growth. As women become better educated, they gain greater
respect; they become breadwinners; they acquire maturity in parental
responsibility and a greater say in family affairs. Investing in people in this
way, especially in education, is surely to be preferred to legal imposition of
limits, to artificial corrective measures and drastic policies, and to the
unacceptable practice of eliminating fetuses, especially females, in order to
limit population growth.
Finally, since this Commission’s 39th session last year, important initiatives
have been both completed and launched, in particular concerning migrants, a
topic of no small importance in relation to the changing age structures of
populations. My delegation regards last year’s High-Level Dialogue on
International Migration and Development as having been useful and welcomes the
offer of Belgium and other countries to maintain its momentum in the form of the
forthcoming Global Forum on Migration and Development. It is to be hoped that
the Forum will build upon what was achieved during the High-level Dialogue.
There is almost no country in the world untouched by migration and it has become
an extremely important source both of labour and of remittances depending on
each country’s circumstances. Therefore, it is in the interests of all states -
not to mention the migrants themselves - that the Forum be allowed room to
succeed.
Thank you, Mr Chairman.
Copyright © 2015-2021 The Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations