Population Organizations

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POPULATION ORGANIZATIONS

NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL AGENCIES Alphonse L. MacDonald

PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS John C. Caldwell

RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS John Haaga

UNITED NATIONS SYSTEM Joseph Chamie

NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL AGENCIES

This article provides an overview of international, national, governmental, and nongovernmental organizations, including foreign assistance agencies, that work in the field of population.

Intergovernmental Organizations

Many intergovernmental organizations that are active in the population field are part of the United Nations (UN) system discussed in a subsequent article. Some regional intergovernmental organizations are active in advocacy and policy promotion, but most are reluctant to infringe in areas that are seen as national prerogatives. Europe is the principal exception.

The Council of Europe is a human rights–based intergovernmental organization. Any European state can become a member if it accepts the principle of the rule of law and guarantees human rights and fundamental freedoms to any person under its jurisdiction. The council's European Population Committee monitors demographic trends in the member states and advises them on demographic policies. The Parliamentary Assembly, which consists of representatives of the national parliaments, considers European and international problems and proposes solutions. One of its specialist committees deals exclusively with migration, refugees, and demography. The resolutions adopted by the assembly provide guidance to the member states and have considerable influence on national policies.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM), the most important intergovernmental organization dealing with migration, also has European origins. It was established in 1951 as the Provisional Intergovernmental Committee for the Movement of Migrants from Europe (PICMME) to deal with emigration from Europe to non-European destinations after World War II. It became the IOM in 1989, when its constitution was modified to broaden its objectives and scope of operation. The IOM has evolved into a forum for governments, a research institute, a technical advisory center, and a program manager. It continues to deal with national migration programs, including labor migration and the transfer and repatriation of refugees and internally displaced persons. It focuses on migratory movements caused by emergencies, including irregular migration and trafficking in humans, and on post-conflict interventions. It also deals with issues of migrants's health, with an emphasis on the needs of women.

International Nongovernmental Organizations

The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) is the second largest international nongovernmental organization, after the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). The IPPF was created in 1952 by eight national family-planning associations and has members in over 180 countries. The IPPF and its members are committed to promoting the rights of women and men to decide freely the number and spacing of their children. They also promote sexual and reproductive health. They consider that a balance between the world's population size and its natural resources is a necessary condition for improving the quality of life worldwide. To achieve its aims, the IPPF carries out advocacy campaigns to influence policymakers and public opinion, sets standards for contraceptive safety, and offers a wide range of reproductive health services, with special attention to the needs of adolescents and young people.

Although it is not a population organization, since 1995 the IFRC has paid more attention to public health issues, including reproductive health. Some of its members provide reproductive health services, with an emphasis on the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS. Together with UN and nongovernmental organizations it offers basic health services to refugees and internally displaced persons.

National Governmental Organizations

A wide range of national governmental organizations deal with population issues. Developed countries do not have explicit comprehensive population policies: In those countries population concerns are dealt with by ministries or specialized agencies. Where needed, policy coordination is the responsibility of the ministry of labor, health and social welfare, or the interior. In the United States the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration of the Department of State formulates and coordinates that country's policies on international population issues.

In developing countries, national governments are responsible for the formulation, implementation, and monitoring of population and development policies. Following the recommendations of various international population conferences (Bucharest 1974, Mexico City 1984, Cairo 1994), many developing countries created special organizations to deal with population issues. In some cases these are ministries; in other cases they are national population boards or commissions that function as independent units or are attached to a ministry or planning authority.

Reliable and timely population statistics are needed for the formulation, monitoring, and evaluation of population policies. Population statistics are collected and collated by national statistical offices, national census organizations, and civil registries. Several governmental agencies carry out specialized population surveys. All the developed countries have well-established national systems of population statistics. In the United States the main source of population data is the Bureau of the Census, which is constitutionally mandated to carry out the decennial census. The National Center for Health Statistics (NHCS), which is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the Department of Health and Human Services, is the principal federal health and vital statistics agency.

Migrant-receiving countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand have explicit policies that regulate the inflow of migrants. Those policies are developed and implemented by specialized government agencies. In the United States the Immigration and Naturalization Service and its successor agencies within the Department of Homeland Security are entrusted with the administration of the immigration laws. In Canada a special ministerial-level agency, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, is responsible for the development and implementation of immigration and citizenship policies: It controls movement across the border, promotes the integration of migrants, and conducts research on immigration issues. Most developing countries, even those with a large number of foreign residents and continued immigration, do not have explicit migration policies or specialized migration agencies.

National Nongovernmental Organizations

Since the 1970s there has been a rapid increase in the number and variety of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that deal with population. Organizations in developing countries tend to be modest in size and to deal with a single issue and often depend on foreign support. A number of NGOs in developed countries are active both in their own countries and overseas. All the service-providing NGOs also have a strong advocacy component. A selection of these organizations is listed below:

Population Action International, a U.S.-based organization concerned exclusively with enhancement of public awareness in support of worldwide population programs based on human rights.
The Planned Parenthood Federation of America, an organization that provides a wide range of reproductive health services that complement those provided by governments.
Marie Stopes International, a United Kingdom–based reproductive health organization that provides information, training, technical assistance, and services to people in 40 countries and promotes research.
Family Health International, a U.S.-based organization that is active in 40 developing countries and attempts to improve reproductive health services worldwide through innovative health service delivery interventions, training, and information provision as well as through biomedical and social science research.
Japanese Organization for International Cooperation in Family Planning, an organization created to share Japan's experience in family planning and maternal and child health that works in 26 developing countries by means of community-based interventions.
Population Reference Bureau, a U.S.-based organization that provides objective and timely information on U.S. and global population trends and their implications.
Helpage International, a United Kingdom–based global network of not-for-profit organizations that works in 39 countries to improve the quality of life of disadvantaged older people.
African Gerontological Society (AGES International), an organization with members in 16 African countries whose main objective is to sensitize African governments and the public at large to issues of aging.

Foreign Assistance Agencies

Before the 1970s technical assistance in regard to population was provided mainly by U.S.-based foundations such as the Rockefeller Foundation and the Ford Foundation. Since that time nearly all developed country governments have provided technical and financial support for population as part of their foreign assistance activities. Donor countries and organizations provide foreign assistance through a special unit in the ministry of foreign affairs or an independent technical assistance agency. The U.S. Agency for International Development, which was created in 1961, is the principal federal agency responsible for U.S. assistance to foreign countries. It is an independent agency that receives policy guidance from the Secretary of State. The EuropeAid Co-operation Office is responsible for the coordination of the technical assistance activities of the European Union, including population assistance, to developing countries and countries in transition.

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European Commission. 2000. "Partnership Agreement between the Members of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States of the One Part, and the European Community and Its Member States, of the Other Part, Signed in Cotonou on 23 June 2000–Protocols–Final Act–Declarations." Official Journal of the European Communities, L 317 15.12.2002: 3–353.

Hyde, Sarah, Costanza de Toma, and Giorgiana Rosa, eds. 2000. Handbook on European Community Support for Population and Reproductive Health, 2nd edition. Garden City, NY: Waterside Press.

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. 2000. World Disaster Report 2000: Focus on Public Health. Geneva: International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Maas, Jörg, and Mirja Rothschädl. 1999. Guide to European Population Assistance: An OrientationGuide for Institutions in Developing Countries on Funding for Population and Reproductive Health. Hannover, Germany: Balance Verlag.

United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. 2000. Charting the Progress of Populations. New York: UnitedNations.

United Nations Population Fund. 2000. Financial Resource Flows for Population Activities in 1998. New York: United Nations Population Fund.

internet resources.

African Gerontological Society (AGES International). 2003. <http://www.geocities.com/csps_ghana/>.

Bureau of the Census. 2003. <http://www.census.gov>.

Citizenship and Immigration Canada. 2003. <http://www.cic.gc.ca>.

Council of Europe. 2003. <http://www.coe.int>.

EuropeAid Co-operation Office. 2003. <http://europa.eu.int/comm/europeaid/index_en.htm>.

Family Health International. 2003. <http://www.fhi.org>.

Ford Foundation. 2003. <http://www.fordfound.org/>.

Helpage International. 2003. <http://www.helpage.org>.

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). 2003. <http://www.ifrc.org>.

International Organization for Migration (IOM). 2003. <http://www.iom.int>.

International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF). 2003. <http://www.ippf.org>.

Japanese Organization for International Cooperation in Family Planning. 2003. <http://www.joicfp.org/eng/>.

Marie Stopes International. 2003. <http://www.mariestopes.org.uk/>.

National Center for Health Statistics (NHCS). 2003. <http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/>.

Planned Parenthood Federation of America. 2003. <http://www.plannedparenthood.org>.

Population Action International. 2003 <http://www.populationaction.org>.

Population Reference Bureau. 2003. <http://www.prb.org>.

Rockefeller Foundation. 2003. <http://www.rockfound.org/>.

United States Agency for International Development. 2003. <http://www.usaid.gov/>.

United States Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration of the Department of State. 2003. <http://www.state.gov/g/prm>.

United States Department of Homeland Security, 2003. <http://www.whitehouse.gov/deptofhomeland/sect3.html#3-2>.

Alphonse L. MacDonald

PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS

In the population field, as in other areas of learning, professional associations have helped to define the field and to bring practitioners into a network of persons with similar interests. Researchers were originally so few in number that a single national organization could cover all disciplines, as did the Royal Society of London, chartered in Britain in 1662, and the Académie Royale des Sciences, established in France in 1666. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries similar organizations appeared in much of Europe and the United States. The nineteenth century saw the coming into existence of the first national disciplinary organizations, followed by the first international ones. This was the outcome of the growth of research and advanced teaching in a world becoming wealthier and more specialized. The strongest international demand in each field was usually for conferences, and their organization frequently preceded the establishment of associations.

History

In the early years of the Royal Society there was a marked interest in population promoted by such members as John Graunt, William Petty, and Edmund Halley. It was not sustained: not until years from 1965 to 1970, during the presidency of Howard Florey, was that interest briefly revived. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, demographers were still so few in numbers that their needs were met by membership in organizations most suited to their substantive interests in such areas as statistics, economics, geography, or health. Demography achieved explicit recognition at the International Conferences of Hygiene, the Fourth of which (Geneva 1882) included demography as a defined section; the Fifth (Hague 1884) and subsequent meetings included "Demography" in the conference title. Demographers also attended the International Statistical Congress from its inauguration in 1853 and belonged to the International Statistical Institute from its establishment in 1885. In 1922 the International Geographical Union was founded, the first international association in any of the social sciences and one with population interests.

Population soon acquired its own association, apparently the second international social science association to be established. Its origin lay in the World Population Conference (WPC) organized by the American feminist Margaret Sanger (1879–1966) and held in Geneva in 1927. This meeting included some academic demographers, but they were outnumbered by others from biology, medicine, statistics, and economics, many of whom were attracted by eugenics or Malthusianism, prominent topics on the program. WPC discussions led to the creation the following year of the International Union for the Scientific Investigation of Population Problems (IUSIPP). IUSIPP's membership was made up of national committees, none of which existed when it was formed. In America, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and elsewhere in Europe these committees, numbering 14 in all and consisting largely of delegates to the WPC, were set up between 1928 and the first IUSIPP Conference in Rome in 1931. Opposition to racial eugenics and ideology-laden concepts such as lebensraum caused some national delegations to boycott the conference and others to withdraw from it, leading to an alternative meeting in London. Similar friction arose at the second conference in Berlin in 1935.

Except in the United States, the establishment of IUSIPP national committees did not lead to the formation of national population associations. In America it did so, with the Population Association of America (PAA) coming officially into being at its first conference in May 1931. The growth of the demographic profession in the United States can be gauged by the attendance at its annual conferences: 38 in 1931, 155 in 1936, 300 in 1946, 500 in 1957, over 1,000 in 1964, over 2,000 in 1971, and over 2,600 in 1975. Then numbers leveled off for almost 20 years, climbing again in the mid-1990s to pass 3,000 in 1996.

IUSIPP was reorganized in 1947 as the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP), with a membership of individual scholars rather than national committees. It displayed disciplinary maturity by omitting "problems" from its title. On the other hand, it retained "scientific," unlike other disciplinary associations–evidence of demographers's wariness of the effect on population research of the ideologies surrounding eugenics, population control, and the promotion of higher fertility. In 2002, the Union had about 1900 members in 130 countries.

As the field expanded after World War II, more national societies, with memberships mostly below 500, came into existence: in Japan in 1948; in West Germany in 1953; in several countries in Latin America in the 1960s; in France, Britain (the British Society for Population Studies), India, and Pakistan in the 1970s; and in Australia, New Zealand, China, and Thailand in the early 1980s. Pan-continental organizations also appeared: the European Association for Population Studies (EAPS) in 1983 and the Union for African Population Studies (UAPS) in 1984.

Roles of Population Associations

The role of population associations is generally similar to that of other learned bodies. Among international associations the IUSSP is distinctive in having a substantial number of its members coming from developing countries and a large proportion of its conference proceedings and research workshops being focused on these countries. This emphasis can be explained by the international interest in the consequences of rapid developing-world population growth during the second half of the twentieth century and the consequent funding the IUSSP could obtain from international organizations and foundations. In most of the world demographers are still few and scattered, and membership in the IUSSP has compensated for the lack of a demography department or faculty. Only in America is the position different, and this explains why the PAA has a greater membership than the IUSSP and attracts greater numbers to its conferences. The majority of PAA members are involved in research focused on America.

Associations have been necessary to promote disciplines and define their boundaries. The definition of demography and even the broader populationstudies is a continuing problem, and there has been a tendency to define it by the use of its core methodology and techniques so that many demographers belong both to a population association and to another learned body covering the substantive area from which they draw their methodology (e.g., sociology, economics, anthropology, history, public health, statistics, biostatistics). The definition may also proceed to producing an agreed terminology and publishing dictionaries as the IUSSP does. The IUSSP is an elective organization, supposedly for those who have distinguished themselves in the field although in practice no longer very restrictive. Most national associations admit all interested persons and have membership ranging from academia to the bureaucracy and beyond. Associations facilitate communications by publishing (or placing on the Web) information about members, including in the IUSSP's case (and befittingly as demographers) their exact dates of birth. All this is facilitated by a permanent head office, located in Liège, Belgium, from 1969 to 1999, and transferred to Paris in the latter year.

Most associations produce peer-reviewed journals and newsletters and organize conferences. IUSIPP published Population from 1932 to 1939. IUSSP, almost uniquely, does not have a journal, but for many years helped support and distribute Population Studies (Britain), Population (France), Population Index (USA), and Genus (Italy). PAA published a bibliographical journal, Population Literature, from 1934 (taken over by Princeton University's Office of Population Research in 1936 and becoming Population Index), and from 1964 published thejournal Demography. English-language journals are published by the Indian Association for the Study of Population (Demography India), the Australian Population Association (The Journal of Population Re-search), the Population Association of New Zealand (The New Zealand Population Review), EAPS (European Journal of Population, in part also in French) and UAPS (The African Population Review).

Most national population associations hold annual or biennial conferences. The IUSSP organizes four-yearly general conferences and occasional regional meetings. In 1953 (Rome) and 1965 (Belgrade) it organized international population conferences in conjunction with the United Nations Population Division and it has been a co-sponsoring body for subsequent UN conferences (Bucharest 1974, Mexico City 1984, Cairo 1994). Some associations help give direction to research–notably the IUSSP, through its scientific committees and their workshops. Some award prizes, as IUSSP has done annually since 1991 and PAA for a longer period. Many act as lobbying organizations for the recognition and support of the discipline of demography, and many also raise funds for programs. IUSSP has been particularly active in the latter area.

bibliography

Grebenik, Eugene. 1991. "Demographic Research in Britain, 1936–1986." Population Research in Britain, Supplement to Population Studies 45: 3–30.

Hodgson, Dennis. 1991. "The Ideological Origins of the Population Association of America" Population and Development Review 17(1): 1–34.

Lunde, Anders S., Frank W. Notestein, and Frank Lorimer. 1981. "The PAA at 50." Population Index 47(3): 479–494.

Notestein, Frank W. 1982. "The Development of Demography in the United States." Population and Development Review 8(4): 651–687.

Sanger, Margaret, ed. 1927. Proceedings of the World Population Conference. London: Edward Arnold.

John C. Caldwell

RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS

Population research is in many ways an inherently collective enterprise. For many reasons–the need to create and manage large data sets, the value of collaborative projects covering broad geographic areas, and the need to borrow theories and methods from other disciplines–the institutional setting has always been important to population studies.

Early Institutions

Before World War II, there were few specialized institutions for research and training in demography, although small research groups often coalesced in population units of government statistical bureaus or around professorial posts in universities. As a formal university-based unit, the Office of Population Research (OPR) at Princeton University, founded in 1935, was an influential pioneer, training many of those who built other institutions in the United States, Europe, and eventually Asia and the Americas. Funding for OPR came from the Milbank Memorial Fund and the Scripps Foundation for Research in Population Problems, and later from the Rockefeller Foundation. For the League of Nations, OPR undertook four book-length studies of the population of Europe and the Soviet Union, which were published from 1944 to 1946. On the initiative of the U.S. Department of State, then concerned with postwar planning, these studies were extended to include Asia, resulting in influential reports on Japan and India. But even for these, funding came from private sources.

In Europe, early research institutions were created with public funding. The Institut national d'études démographiques (INED) was founded in Paris in 1945, building to some extent on a predecessor set up by the Vichy government. Ever since, INED has maintained a prominent role as a major center of demographic research. Demographic research and training, especially the study of mortality in former colonial regions, was a specialty of several health institutes in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, and at the Universities of London and Liverpool in the United Kingdom. The immediate postwar period also saw the establishment of a department of demography at the Australian National University.

The Population Council, set up by John D. Rockefeller 3rd in 1952, became an important center for research, a source of fellowships for many people who later became leaders in the field in newly independent countries, and a progenitor of research institutes around the world. One of Rockefeller's motives was frustration at the reluctance of large foundations to work directly on population issues because of controversy surrounding the ethics of contraception and the stigma of demography's past connection with eugenics. The council, based in New York, received a large grant from the Ford Foundation, followed by grants from other foundations, and from the late 1960s on it received funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development and aid agencies of other governments. Its programs span laboratory research and clinical trials, social sciences, and field research on programs in developing countries.

Research Centers Funded in the 1960s and 1970s

Many of the largest and most productive research centers are based at universities in the United States. Most trace their origin to Ford Foundation grants in the 1960s and 1970s. Oscar Harkavy, Ford's program officer in population, saw a need for training population researchers and program administrators in poor countries. It is inappropriate to see the foundation's motivation solely as a concern to staff family planning programs. Harkavy and officers of other foundations also wanted population issues to be incorporated into development planning, and they hoped to train demographers who could lead research institutions in their home countries. The centers funded faculty research projects and travel, development of new courses, fellowships for foreign students, and other institutional needs. Foundation grants also sustained collaborations between U.S. universities and institutions in other countries, notably India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Taiwan.

Ford Foundation grants went to the Universities of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Chicago in the early 1960s. Beginning in the mid-1960s, grants were made to schools of public health at Johns Hopkins and Harvard Universities, the University of North Carolina, and the University of Michigan, and to the department of demography at the University of California, Berkeley. Ford grants also went to the London School of Economics and the Australian National University to help internationalize existing programs.

The university centers varied in their emphases and the intensity and scope of their international connections. Compared to those located in social science faculties, those based at public health schools tended to place greater emphasis on training for family planning program management and evaluation.

The focus on family planning programs and their needs intensified when the Agency for International Development began to fund population research in 1967. The director of the agency's office of population, Reimert Ravenholt, was able to secure funds for innovative and complex research ventures, notably the World Fertility Survey. But Ravenholt's interest in research (and research results) chiefly as a support for family planning program activities fueled the suspicions of those who feared loss of objectivity and independence from reliance on funding from a "mission agency."

Demography was not alone in suffering deep divisions in the late 1960s. Criticism of collaboration with government programs and policy, lack of sympathy with the growing feminist movement, unequal cooperative arrangements with researchers in "underdeveloped countries," scant involvement of members of racial minorities in research at home, perceived obsession with maintenance of academic standards–these criticisms were aimed at research institutes and professional associations in many disciplines. The population research institutes survived in better shape than some other multidisciplinary institutions (created in many cases by grants to the same universities from the same foundations), such as area studies centers and development studies centers. The greater durability of population research institutes may be due both to the existence of a scientific core in demography and to the growth of new funding agencies with a more purely research orientation.

NIH Grants and Foundation Funding

Beginning in the 1970s, the largest sources of funding for population research have been divisions of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH): the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and the National Institute on Aging (NIA). Through its Demographic and Behavioral Sciences Branch, NICHD began funding social science research on fertility and family demography as an adjunct to clinical research on contraception. Research on longevity and the effects of an aging population were natural extensions of the health portfolio of the NIA. NIA's budget grew especially rapidly during the 1990s, in part because of the increasing salience of population aging as a demand on government budgets. Demography, as Samuel H. Preston pointed out in a 1997 article, has been the only social science to have a "secure foothold" at the NIH, a great advantage because "cost-conscious legislators continue to place medical research, and NIH in particular, near the top of their priority lists" (p.236).

NIH grants are made on a highly competitive basis, with committees of non-government scientists playing a crucial role in selection. In 2000 NICHD funded 13 population research centers with program grants, four centers for international training, and 12 training grants to institutions. A number of institutions receive both research and training grants as centers, and also numerous individual project grants for their researchers. NIA funds ten centers for economic and demographic research on aging, often at the same universities that house the NICHD centers.

In the United States, as in other anglophone countries, most population institutes are connected to universities, with research and training closely linked. There are also productive centers based at nonprofit research organizations, such as RAND, the Urban Institute, and Battelle Memorial Institute; much of the work at these centers is concerned with analysis of social, health, and income support policies in the United States.

Foundations have remained a vital source of funding. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation provide flexible funding to centers, particularly valuable to centers seeking to maintain international connections. The Mellon Foundation has emphasized support for anthropological demography, the study of urbanization, and refugee studies. The Hewlett Foundation emphasizes reproductive health. The Wellcome Trust, based in the United Kingdom, began in the 1990s to fund several centers in Asia and Africa. Newer foundations, such as the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, have also become active in funding.

Organizational Structure

Successful population research centers in the United States are complex organizations requiring entrepreneurial skill as well as intellectual leadership. One research group may include senior demographers with their own individual research grants from NIH, research assistants with stipends paid through foundation postdoctoral fellowships, and visiting scholars whose expenses are paid with NIH center funds, all of whom are supported by administrative staff whose salaries typically are paid from general university funds. Their colleagues may include faculty members performing contractual research for a state health department and graduate students with unrestricted university fellowships. This diversity creates work for accountants but also provides continuity, autonomy, and protection from shifting priorities of funding sources.

A small number of research institutes account for much of the scholarly output in the field. During the 1990s, 44 percent of all first authors of articles in the leading U.S. journal Demography, published by the Population Association of America, were affiliated with just ten institutions (all located in the United States). During that decade, all non-U.S. institutions together accounted for fewer first authors of articles in Demography than the University of North Carolina alone. This reflects the prominence of U.S. institutions, although perhaps also a degree of insularity among both those who submit articles and the journal editors or the methodological emphases of American demography.

Non-U.S. Institutions

Regional demographic institutes covering major world regions have had partial success in countering the great hindrances to research in poor countries: low salaries, the lack of a critical mass of population scientists in individual countries, and a tradition of hostility between government and universities, especially social science faculties. The United Nations (UN) Secretariat proposed such regional centers for demographic research and training in 1955. The Centro Latinoamericano para demografia (now the Centro Lationamericano y Caribeño de demografia) was founded in Chile in 1957 and the Cairo Demographic Centre in 1963. India under its first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, was determined to create and maintain its own world-class research institutes, mainly in the laboratory sciences and engineering but also in the social sciences. The Government of India and the Tata Trust endowed what became the International Institute of Population Sciences (IIPS) in Bombay. IIPS took on a regional training role beginning in the 1950s, with support from the UN. Sub-Saharan Africa has had several centers that have been important providers of training for statistical services but has had few regional research centers. The two most significant are the UN's Regional Institute for Population Studies at the University of Ghana and the Institut de formation et de recherche démographiques at the University of Yaounde II, Cameroon. Two recently established centers, set up with foundation funding, are the African Population and Health Research Center in Nairobi, Kenya, and the Africa Centre for Health and Population Research in Durban, South Africa.

In Asia and Africa, research groups have grown up around the sites of longstanding health and demographic surveillance systems. The oldest, in Matlab in what is now Bangladesh, was originally a site for cholera vaccine trials conducted by the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (now the Centre for Health and Population Research), which has had many demographers on its staff or as visiting scholars. Other surveillance sites, such as the British Medical Research Council site in Gambia, research sites in West Africa funded by the French government through the Institut de recherche pour le Développement, and the Agincourt site in South Africa, also began as field stations for vaccine trials or community health research. The Navrongo field station in Ghana studies alternative forms of family planning and health services for rural Africa. These centers for demographic surveillance form a network, sharing expertise and software.

The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) is a unique international institution, created originally to bring together scientists from Western and communist countries to work cooperatively on global problems, and located in Austria on the then frontlines of the cold war. Its population program has included studies in multistate mathematical demography, population projections, and other topics. Perhaps the most significant institutional development in the 1990s was the founding of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, part of the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft through which the German government funds research in the natural and social sciences. It planned a staff of 150 by 2002, which would make it the world's largest single center for demographic research. The institute, which is located in Rostock, has particular strengths in aging, biological demography, mathematical demography, and European and Asian population studies.

Trends and New Developments

Universities are conservative institutions. Population research institutes have proven durable and attractive to several generations of scholars and students. There is no lack of interesting problems (with practical consequences) for which the population sciences provide useful tools for analysis and solution. The largest funders of research give a major role in allocation of resources to committees of scientists who themselves were trained in and work in the existing research centers. Thus the safest prediction is that the population research centers will continue to exist in much the same form as at the beginning of the twenty-first century.

But some potentially important changes are discernible. The development of the Internet has made communication and sharing of files easier. The Wellcome Trust is supporting an Asian Meta-Centre for Population and Sustainable Development Analysis, linking six university-based centers and IIASA, a potential prototype for "virtual" centers linking smaller institutions in neighboring countries. Particularly interesting is the growth of Internet networks such as H-Demog for historical demographers, which is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. More formal networks have been created on an experimental basis, for example, the Family and Children Well-Being Research Network funded by the NICHD. One will no longer have to live near and work for a large university in a rich country to benefit from frequent interaction with colleagues with related interests.

Advances in decentralized computing have also reduced the need to be connected to a major research center. Most demographers have in their own homes far more computing power than was available at the facilities lavishly described in funding proposals for center grants in the 1970s. Commercial statistical packages offer online support services and training. Data sets and documentation are increasingly available on the Internet.

The Internet and decentralized computing could lead to new versions of the scientific networks of the early modern era, when the Royal Society and other "invisible colleges" flourished, and scholars of all nations exchanged letters in Latin and gave seminars even in countries at war with their own. Twenty-first-century globalization in science, as in other fields, is in part a return to a golden past.

There are countervailing forces, however. One is the increasing concern in Europe and North America for data privacy. The very factors that have made analysis easier have also heightened concern about confidentiality. A durable function of research institutes may be to guarantee security of data on individuals. Institutes may also expand their roles as data producers, as demographers and other social scientists increasingly rely on complex longitudinal data sets. Keeping in touch with a cohort of respondents in a mobile society through successive rounds of data collection requires continuity and a scale of effort hard to assemble on a short-term basis. Data analysis may be decentralized, but survey management may remain lodged in experienced institutions. Finally, research centers may still be needed as the nurturers of intellectual companionship.

The balance of centrifugal and centripetal forces may favor researchers who can function on multiple levels: as members of a traditional university department, as members of a localized population research center, and as members of networks and "virtual centers" for collaboration with scientists around the world. Demographers will likely adapt to this new world more easily than scientists trained in more self-contained disciplines.

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Preston, Samuel H. 1997. "Where Is U.S. Demography Headed?" In Les contours de la démographie: Au seuil du XXIe siècle, ed. Jean-Claude Chasteland and Louis Roussel. Paris: Institut national d'études démographiques.

internet resource.

Comité International de Cooperation dans les Recherches Nationales en Démographie. 2002. Directory of Population Research Centers. <http://www.cicred.ined.fr/acerd>.

John G. Haaga

UNITED NATIONS SYSTEM

Prior to the establishment of the United Nations in 1945, the League of Nations, in existence from 1919 to 1946, had taken a number of initiatives aimed at improving population statistics and information among its member countries. Many of these initiatives have played an important role in the work of the United Nations in the population field. In particular, the League focused on the compilation and publishing of national statistics, including demographics. The International Statistical Yearbook, starting with the year 1926, included data on population, births, deaths, growth, age structure, occupational groups, and unemployment. In addition to the Yearbook, the League published the Monthly Bulletin of Statistics, which contained current national population statistics.

Within the United Nations system, various bodies share responsibility for population issues–at UN headquarters, in the regional commissions, in programs and funds set up under the General Assembly, and in the specialized agencies. Brief descriptions of the population activities of these bodies are given below, based on mission statements and related official information.

The Population Information Network, POPIN, established in 1979 and maintained by the United Nations Population Division, makes population information from all UN sources easily available to the international community. Details of UN publications from each agency can be found at their respective Web sites or through POPIN.

UN Headquarters

The two primary offices concerned with population matters at UN Headquarters are the Population Division and the Statistics Division, both of which are within the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA). In addition, a number of other divisions within DESA have work programs that touch upon aspects of population. In particular, the Division for Social Policy and Development deals with the issue of aging and the Division for the Advancement of Women deals with gender issues.

The Population Division began its work in 1946 as the secretariat to the Population Commission, which was established in the same year as a subsidiary body of the Economic and Social Council. The Division is responsible for monitoring and appraisal of the full range of areas in the field of population, including outcomes of UN global conferences on population and development–notably the Program of Action of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development. The Division provides substantive support to the Commission on Population and Development (formerly the Population Commission), as well as to related work of the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council.

The Population Division also facilitates access by governments to information on population trends and their interrelationships with social and economic development as an input to government policy and program formulation. One important activity in this area is the preparation of population estimates and projections for all countries and areas of the world, as well as for urban and rural areas and major cities. These data serve as the standard and consistent set of population figures for use throughout the United Nations system.

The Statistics Division began its work in 1946 as the secretariat to the Statistics Commission established in the same year as a subsidiary body of the Economic and Social Council. The Statistics Division promotes the development of national statistics and the improvement of their comparability. It provides central statistical services to the UN Secretariat and promotes the coordination of the statistical work of the specialized agencies, including the improvement of statistical methods in general.

Within the Statistics Division, population issues fall primarily within the responsibility of the Demographic and Social Statistics Branch. The Branch collects, compiles, and disseminates official national population statistics from censuses, surveys, and vital registration systems and prepares methodological reports and guidelines for the coordination of data collection. Its best-known publication is the Demographic Yearbook, issued since 1948.

Regional Commissions

The United Nations has five regional commissions, which as part of their activities deal with population matters. They are: the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA); the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP); the Economic Commission for Europe (ECE); the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC); and the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA). In the past, most commissions had population divisions, but these have merged with other offices. The commissions promote dialogue among the governments of their respective regions on various aspects of population change and related issues, such as food security, sustainable development, and poverty reduction. They also coordinate regional activities dealing with data collection and research relating to population matters.

Funds and Programs

UNICEF. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) was established in 1946 as a temporary body to provide emergency assistance to children in war-ravaged countries. In 1953 the General Assembly placed the Fund on a permanent footing and charged it with assisting in the development of permanent child health and welfare services, particularly in developing countries.

UNICEF's mandate is to protect children's rights and promote their welfare. It is guided by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which seeks to establish children's rights as enduring ethical principles and to support international standards of behavior toward children. UNICEF also monitors the implementation of the World Declaration on the Survival, Protection and Development of Children.

UNFPA. In 1967 the United Nations established a Trust Fund for Population Activities. In 1969 the Trust Fund was renamed the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA). In 1987 its name (but not its acronym) was again changed, to the United Nations Population Fund.

UNFPA is the largest international source of population assistance. About a quarter of all population assistance from donor nations to developing countries is channeled through it. It has three main program areas: reproductive health, including family planning and sexual health; population and development strategies; and advocacy in support of its goals. UNFPA is guided by the principles, recommendations, and goals of the Program of Action of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development–the Cairo conference.

UNHCR. The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1950, one of several initiatives by the international community to provide protection and assistance to refugees. Initially, UNHCR was given a limited three-year mandate to help resettle some 1.2 million European refugees left homeless in the aftermath of World War II. However, as other refugee crises emerged around the globe, UNHCR's mandate was extended and has continued to be extended every five years.

UNHCR promotes international refugee agreements and monitors government compliance with international refugee law. Its principal functions are to provide international protection to refugees, seek durable solutions to their plight, and furnish material assistance. Protection involves preventing refoulement–that is, the forcible return of a refugee to a country where he or she may have reason to fear persecution. In addition, UNHCR provides material assistance to refugees in the form of shelter, food, medical aid, education, and other social services.

UN-Habitat. The United Nations Human Settlements Programme, UN-Habitat, formerly known as the UN Centre for Human Settlements (UNCHS-Habitat), was established in 1978. UN-Habitat aims to promote the socially and environmentally sustainable development of human settlements and the attainment of adequate shelter for all. On population issues, UN-Habitat's work is particularly relevant in the areas of urbanization and internal migration. A key element in its work is the implementation of the Habitat Agenda–the global plan of action adopted at the 1996 Habitat II Conference in Istanbul.

UNAIDS. The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, UNAIDS, is the leading coordinator of worldwide action against HIV/AIDS. Its mission is to lead, strengthen, and support an expanded response to the epidemic that will prevent the spread of HIV; to provide care and support for those infected with the disease; to reduce the vulnerability of individuals and communities to HIV/AIDS; and to alleviate the socioeconomic and human impact of the epidemic. UNAIDS is sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN Development Programme, UNFPA, UNICEF, UNESCO, the World Bank, and the UN Drug Control Programme. UNAIDS compiles data and statistics on HIV/AIDS globally and undertakes studies addressing the determinants and consequences of the epidemic.

Specialized Agencies

WHO. The World Health Organization was established as a specialized agency of the United Nations in 1948. WHO maintains an international surveillance system to investigate, provide early warning, and respond to epidemics of newly emerging and re-emerging diseases. The agency compiles a variety of health-and mortality-related statistics and conducts research on a broad range of health issues. It coordinates international efforts to eliminate or eradicate some infectious diseases. In 1980, for example, WHO certified the global eradication of smallpox–the first disease to be eradicated by the human race. WHO also works to prevent and control major chronic non-communicable diseases that strike people later in their lives.

WHO has a program in the area of reproductive health, including family planning and safe motherhood, sexually transmitted diseases, and HIV/AIDS.

ILO. The International Labour Organization (ILO) was established in 1919, its constitution forming a part of the Treaty of Versailles, which brought the League of Nations into being. In 1946, ILO became the first specialized agency of the United Nations. Although mainly concerned with employment conditions and industrial relations, ILO also compiles employment statistics, which are fundamental to many population and development analyses.

World Bank. Founded in 1944, the World Bank is the world's largest source of development assistance. The Bank provided U.S. $17.3 billion in loans to its client countries in fiscal year 2001. The Bank emphasizes the need for investing in people, particularly through basic health and education; focusing on social development, inclusion, governance, and institution-building as key elements of poverty reduction; and strengthening the ability of the governments to deliver high-quality services efficiently and transparently. In undertaking its development assistance, the Bank collects an extensive range of demographic and related statistics and conducts numerous studies relating to population and development issues.

UNESCO. Established in 1945, the United Nations Educational and Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) promotes collaboration among nations in the fields of education, science, culture, and communication. In particular, it compiles educational enrollment and attainment statistics for countries and regions–a crucial element in many analyses of population and development.

FAO. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) was founded in 1945 with a mandate to raise levels of nutrition and standards of living, to improve agricultural productivity, and to improve the conditions of rural populations. A specific priority is encouraging sustainable agriculture and rural development–a long-term strategy for increasing food production and food security while conserving and managing natural resources.

FAO compiles extensive international statistics relating to the rural environment, food production, and population.