Purpose of Population 2005

POPULATION 2005 advocates and promotes the earliest possible implementation of the Program of Action approved by the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), which met in Cairo in 1994.

Principal objectives of the ICPD are: the provision of universal access to reproductive health services, including family planning; sustained economic growth in the context of sustainable development; education, especially for girls; gender equality and equity, and infant, child and maternal mortality reduction.

If these objectives are accomplished, the ICPD document maintains, total world population will be held below the 1994 medium projection of 7.5 billion by the year 2015 and below the medium variant of 9.8 billion by 2050. Energetic and committed implementation of the ICPD Program of Action will ensure that every pregnancy is intended and every child is a wanted child.

Regional and national mechanisms exist, as well as individual and coordination groups, focusing on specific aspects of the ICPD Program of Action. But POPULATION 2005 is the only international alliance whose sole purpose is to seek implementation of the Program of Action on a comprehensive global basis.

POPULATION 2005 consists of selected individuals with significant policy or program experience in the population field who are committed to the Program of Action.