A critical analysis of the Plan for a Worldly Action on Population

Abstract

The United Nations' Worldly Conference on Population, that took place in Bucarest in 1974, was the highest point in the World's Year of Population. There, for the first time, delegates from the different countries belonging to the U.N. discussed not only the relations between the demographic problems and the socioeconomic development but also the population policies to be put into practice in order to promote the development and the well-being of populations. Two fundamental ideas dominated the discussions: on the one side the idea that the structures and the degree of socio-economic development play a more important part than that of demographic factors - as a delegate from Senegal said: «a mortal blow was given to the illusion that family planning is the medicine for the Third World»; on the other side, the idea that the population problems are quite different according to the places, the cultures and the economic situations. In spite of the difficulties in getting a consensus under these conditions, the Conference approved an important document entitled «Plan for a Worldly Action on Population». In the present text the contents of such a Plan is reported in a concise clear way; at the some time one underlines the most important achievements consecrated there, as well as its main omissions.