Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
countries. One problem is a shortage of skilled work-
ers needed to produce the high-tech products neces-
sary to compete in today's global economy. Another is
a lack of capital and other resources that allow rapid
economic development.
Tw o other problems hinder economic develop-
ment in many developing countries. The first obstacle
is a sharp rise in their debt to developed countries.
Such countries devote much of their income to pay-
ing the interest on their debts. This leaves too little
money for improving social, health, and environmen-
tal conditions.
A second problem is that developing countries
now receive less economic assistance from developed
countries. Indeed, since the mid-1980s, developing
countries have paid developed countries $40-50 bil-
lion per year (mostly in debt interest) more than they
have received from these countries.
could prevent an estimated 5.8 million births per year
and more than 5 million abortions per year!
Some analysts call for expanding family planning
programs to include teenagers and sexually active un-
married women, who are excluded from many exist-
ing programs. For teenagers, many advocate much
greater emphasis on abstinence.
Another suggestion is to develop programs that
educate men about the importance of having fewer
children and taking more responsibility for raising
them. Proponents also call for greatly increased re-
search on developing more effective and more accept-
able birth control methods for men.
Finally, a number of analysts urge pro-choice
and pro-life groups to join forces in greatly reducing
unplanned births and abortions, especially among
teenagers.
Empowering Women: Ensuring Education,
Jobs, and Human Rights
Women tend to have fewer children if they are
educated, hold a paying job outside the home, and do
not have their human rights suppressed.
Three key factors lead women to have fewer and
healthier children: education, paying jobs outside the
home, and living in societies where their rights are not
suppressed.
Women make up roughly half of the world's pop-
ulation. They do almost all of the world's domestic
work and child care for little or no pay. In addition,
they provide more unpaid health care than all of the
world's organized health services combined.
Women also do 60-80% of the work associated
with growing food, gathering fuelwood, and hauling
water in rural areas of Africa, Latin America, and Asia.
As one Brazilian woman put it, “For poor women the
only holiday is when you are asleep.”
Globally, women account for two-thirds of all
hours worked but receive only 10% of the world's in-
come, and they own less than 2% of the world's land.
In most developing countries, women do not have the
legal right to own land or to borrow money. Women
also make up 70% of the world's poor and 60% of the
world's illiterate adults.
According to Thorya Obaid, executive director of
the United Nations Population Agency, “Many women
in the developing world are trapped in poverty by illit-
eracy, poor health, and unwanted high fertility. All of
these contribute to environmental degradation and
tighten the grip of poverty. If we are serious about
sustainable development, we must break this vicious
cycle.”
That means giving women everywhere full legal
rights and the opportunity to become educated and
earn income outside the home. Achieving these goals
Explore the effects of economic development on birth
and death rates and population growth at Environmental
ScienceNow.
Family Planning: Planning for Babies Works
Family planning has been a major factor in reducing
the number of births and abortions throughout most
of the world.
Family planning
provides educational and clinical
services that help couples choose how many children
to have and when to have them. Such programs vary
from culture to culture, but most provide information
on birth spacing, birth control, and health care for
pregnant women and infants.
Family planning has helped increase the propor-
tion of married women in developing countries who
use modern forms of contraception from 10% of mar-
ried women of reproductive age in the 1960s to 51% of
these women in 2005. In addition, family planning is
responsible for at least 55% of the recent drop in TFRs
in developing countries, from 6 in 1960 to 3.0 in 2005.
Family planning has also reduced the number of legal
and illegal abortions performed each year and lowered
the risk of maternal and fetal death from pregnancy.
Despite such successes, several problems remain
.
First,
according to John Bongaarts of the Population
Council and the United Nations Population Fund, 42%
of all pregnancies in developing countries are un-
planned and 26% end with abortion.
Second,
an esti-
mated 150 million women in developing countries
want to limit the number and determine the spacing of
their children, but they lack access to contraceptive
services. According to the United Nations, extending
family planning services to these women and to others
who will soon be entering their reproductive years
