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How can the growth of the world's population be limited? This issue will be the subject of a UN conference in the Kenyan capital Nairobi until Thursday.
For those involved, it is clear that an important role is played by the strengthening of women's rights. The aim of the conference is to end maternal mortality and violence against women by 2030 and to give all people access to contraceptives.
"Determining the timing and number of children is a human right," said Deputy UN Secretary-General Amina Mohammed at the inauguration of the three-day UN World Population Conference. It would have taboos around sexual and reproductive health - such as contraception and sex education - to be broken, demanded Crown Princess Mary of Denmark. "It's not easy to engage with and talk about sexual and reproductive health and rights," she said. "But they have to be addressed."
Daniel Irungu / EPA-EFE / REX
Denmark, represented by Crown Princess Mary (left), is the organizer of the Summit with the UN Population Fund Kenya
There are currently 7.6 billion people in the world, and by 2050, according to a UN forecast, it will be nearly ten billion. In Africa, therefore, the population should double by then.
Vatican refuses to participate because of "controversial and divisive issues"
From a German perspective, population growth is "one of the central issues" in development policy, said Maria Flachsbarth, State Secretary in the Development Ministry. It questions "ultimately all goals, all successes that we have in our development policy," said Flachsbarth.
German Development Minister Gerd Müller (CSU) does not attend the conference. On Deutschlandfunk he said that access to education and health care systems are the key to reducing high birth rates. "With these two factors, the number of children per woman drops automatically," says Müller. It is crucial that women can decide how many children they will receive. "That means equal rights for women," Müller said.
Daniel Irungu / EPA-EFE / REX
Several religious groups protested in Nairobi before the summit against abortion
Abortion and contraception - the goals trigger controversy
The Berlin Institute for Population and Development issued a paper in advance, stating that resistance to the right to sexual self-determination is on the increase worldwide. The institute cites, among other things, right-wing populist forces in Europe, the Catholic Church or the political agenda of US President Donald Trump.
Opponents and religious organizations also criticized the conference topics at the Nairobi Summit. The Vatican, for example, decided not to attend the meeting in the Kenyan capital. The organizers' decision to "focus on controversial and divisive issues" was regrettable, the Vatican's UN office said. The program of the conference should not be reduced to "so-called sexual and reproductive health and rights," it said.
Reproductive health and rights usually denote the right to determine the number of children themselves, as well as access to information about contraception and medical treatment during pregnancy and childbirth.
800 women die every day due to complications during pregnancy
The organizers of the summit - the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and the governments of Kenya and Denmark - are calling for those involved to finally implement the 1994 Cairo Action Program. In it the representatives of the world community proclaimed the right of each individual, freely over the own body, the own partnership as well as over the number and the age distance of the own children to determine. The goal is to be achieved by the year 2030.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the maternal mortality rate has fallen by about 45 percent since 1990. However, about 800 women still die each day because of complications during pregnancy or childbirth.
According to UNFPA, these goals will require 264 billion dollars worldwide, or about 239 billion euros, over the next ten years. This number is small compared to what money would be available and how much people would benefit from the investment, said UNFPA Executive Director Natalia Kanem.
More than 6,000 people from more than 165 countries attend the conference in Kenya's capital. The summit is not an official UN conference. The participation of the states is voluntary, the final declaration is not binding.
This article is part of the project Global Society, for which our reporters report from four continents. The project is long-term and supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
What is the project Global Society?
Under the title Global Society, reporters from Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe will be reporting on injustices in a globalized world, socio-political challenges and sustainable development. The reportages, analyzes, photo galleries, videos and podcasts appear in the Politics Department of SPIEGEL. The project is long-term and will be supported over three years by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF).
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Yes. The editorial content is created without the influence of the Gates Foundation.
Do other media have similar projects?
Yes. Major European media such as "The Guardian" and "El País" have created similar sections on their news pages with "Global Development" or "Planeta Futuro" with the support of the Gates Foundation.
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SPIEGEL ONLINE has already implemented two projects in recent years with the European Journalism Center (EJC) and the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: The "Expedition The Day After tomorrow" on Global Sustainability Goals and the journalistic refugee project "The New Arrivals" Several award-winning multimedia reports on the topics of migration and escape have emerged.
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