united nations advanced certificate faculty - Long Island University

As a Commission Secretary of the Population Commission (1964-1974), what were your
duties? Were you involved in the preparation of the Annual Commission and/or the Annual
Report?
Of course. I had to prepare the Draft Agenda from A to Z and follow up with the election of officers,
i.e., a chairman, vice chairman and rapporteur. At that time, the GA was gradually showing
an interest in population matters, particularly at its 21 st session. The UN had always been a bit
reluctant to adopt population action programs, as these would imply advising governments on the
implications of rapid population growth in the areas of economic and social development. And
these programs frequently raised controversial and sensitive issues. Eventually, the GA recognized
their importance, so the Population Commission was charged to formulate policy and design programs
in the areas of fertility, mortality, migration, and population structure. All this led to the
1974 World Population Conference in Bucharest, the first UN intergovernmental population conference
to adopt an action program.
Have there been significant changes in the work of the Population Commission, either in
procedural or substantive manners, from the years of your tenure until now?
Yes. Around 1960, the growth rate of the world population peaked. In response, the UN worked
to develop and implement impartial and scientifically correct population policies that would be
suitable for member states. Also, member states sought advice from the UN on how to formulate
population policies that would be suitable to their own countries, considering their particular
social, economic and cultural realities. Therefore, the Population Commission was very much
involved in preparing draft resolutions for ECOSOC and the GA on those issues. At the same
time, there was a proposal by some member states (Denmark, the US, Japan) to create a fund for
population programs, based on voluntary contributions, since the UN budget was already allocated
to other areas. That’s how and why the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) was created.
During your career at the UN, what were the most relevant issues on population and migration?
Did you have to deal with any of them, and if so, in what way?
At the beginning, the UN suffered a big handicap in forecasting world population projections
owing to methodology limitations. We tended to underestimate future world population growth,
but gradually we improved the techniques and methodologies of the projections, which become
increasingly exact over time. In a sense, the demographic projections were far more accurate compared,
let’s say, to economic forecasting, which was a reason for us to be proud. Sometimes we
used what we called stable population models, because in some developing countries breakdowns
of fertility and mortality rates were not available. Another important task was carried out in cooperation
with the Statistical Office where we encouraged all member states to participate in a World
Population Census. Starting in 1980, and in cooperation with the Statistical Office, we have managed
to have almost global coverage of the population. That provided a basis for accurate demographic
interpretations for use in economic and social development planning. UNFPA has successfully
attracted considerable financial support for this very expensive enterprise.
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