Editorial

RutgersWPF Pakistan News

Resolution of Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa (KPK) Assembly

The Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa (KPK) Assembly unanimously adopted the resolution supporting United Nation’s Human Rights Council’s Resolution on Preventable Maternal Mortality and Morbidity and Human Rights on October 6, 2011. Ms. Shazia Tehmas Khan, Chairperson Standing Committee on Population Welfare along with Ms. Sanjeeda Yousaf, Ms. Naeema Nisar and Ms. Mehar Sultana jointly presented the resolution in the Assembly’s session.

The passing of the resolution in KPK Assembley is a great achievement for the Rutgers WPF Pakistan team, a result of continuous and sustained efforts to advocate the United Nation’s Human Rights Council’s Preventable Maternal Mortality and Morbidity and Human Rights resolution at the Provincial level. After the successful adaption by the Baluchistan and Sindh Assemblies, advocacy efforts had been undertaken with the Members of Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa Assembly. Rutgers WPF Pakistan held a number of meetings with Members of Provincial Assembly and briefed the KPK Standing Committee on Population Welfare on the preventable maternal mortality resolution.

PARWAN Launching Ceremony

Rutgers WPF Pakistan recently formalized the partnership with Awaz CDS (Multan) and PIDS (Quetta) as implementing partners for Parwan in Pakistan. To mark the initiation of the project, project launching ceremonies were held on October 6, 2011 in Multan, and on October 8, 2011 in Quetta, respectively. The ceremonies were attended by representatives from Rutgers WPF, respective implementing partners, provincial education departments of Baluchistan and Sindh, young people (students), teachers and principals of public and private schools, CSOs, and religious scholars.

In both the ceremonies, Country Representative, Rutgers WPF Pakistan, introduced the project and explained the details of project and said that this project is of great importance as there is a pressing need to bring changes in youth behavior and to mobilize them towards a safe life. A video was also shown in this ceremony in which participants were informed about previous achievements of Rutgers WPF LSBE programme in various districts of Pakistan. After that Syeda Ayesha Ali, National Program Manager Parwan gave a short presentation over the project activities and scope of work with participants and also described the main objectives of the program. Other participants also shared their views in support of the project.

Signing of Memorandums of Understanding for dance4life

Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) were signed with Bedari and Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA), the new IPs for implementation of dance4life, in Islamabad and Lahore respectively, on October 26, 2011. The new IPs are currently in the process of recruiting project staff and the implementation process has also been initiated. Before signing the MoU, separate meetings were held with both partners to give them a detailed view of the project and its progress alongwith the approved work plan.

EGTC workbook endorsement by Rehbar Committee

Rutgers WPF team held a meeting with the Rehbar Committee on October 4, 2011 in the Gujranwala, to share the new workbook, ‘Khawaab se tabeer tak’ with the Committee members. The Rehbar Committee, comprising of 7 notable members of the community and Ullema, was formed to approve the contents of the project material and to ensure its support for smooth running of the project.

In the meeting, which was attended by 11 participants, the committee endorsed the contents of the new workbook. They appreciated the efforts of Rutgers WPF and stated that this course will serve as an indispensible source of guidance for adolescent girls. The Committee further suggested that some Quranic references and Islamic quotes relevant to the topics should be incorporated in the workbooks to ensure greater acceptance.

Pilot of the EGTC workbook

Rutgers WPF Pakistan carried out a two day pilot test of the new EGTC workbook, ‘Khawaab se tabeer tak’, on ¬October 11 to 12, 2011, in Tandoadam, District Sanghar, in order to gauge the acceptance of the workbook contents and to assess the students’ and teachers’ response.

The pilot test of selective topics from the new workbook was conducted in the Fatima Jinnah Girls High School, Tandoadam, Sindh. The pilot was carried out with a group of 15 girls students selected from grade 8, 9 and 10 of two schools, Fatima Jinnah Girls High School and My Marium High School. Teams from Rutgers WPF and ECI conducted this activity and recorded the observation and feedback of students. The students were enthusiastic about taking part in the pilot and are looking forward to the new workbook implementation. They appreciated the life skills and economic empowerment chapters of the workbook and also admired the interactive curriculum delivery style. The feedback provided by many students emphasized on the need to use simple and easy words of Urdu in the workbook for better and quick understanding.

Training of Master Trainers (ToMT)

Residential training of Master Trainers on the new EGTC workbook, ‘Khawaab se tabeer tak’, was held from October 18 to 20, 2011, in Islamabad. Five master trainers from district Sanghar attended the three days training, which was facilitated by ECI and Rutgers WPF. The training was delivered on the contents of life skills and enterprise/economic empowerment. Other areas of focus were presentation skills, effective communication, personality development, and learning and development.

The feedback received from the master trainers at the end of the workshop was very positive; they felt that they have been equipped with the knowledge and skill to carry out trainings for the teachers. In the next phase these master trainers will train a100 teachers selected from 19 Public schools of Sanghar District on the life skills and enterprise/economic empowerment contents of the new workbook.

The master trainers from ECI were highly appreciative of the LSBE component and were of the opinion that it should be part of the ECI’s enterprise trainings because LSBE will enable women to understand their rights, protect themselves against violence and abuse, and would significantly increase their confidence.

Rutgers WPF also arranged an exclusive daylong excursion trip for the master trainer to Murree, on October 17, 2011.

Second National Learning Forum

The second National Learning Forum (NLF) was held from September 29, to October 1, 2011 in Murree. The three days workshop was undertaken under the PSO/LWT project where the focal persons from the eight partner organizations, including Rutgers WPF Pakistan, participated. The workshop was facilitated by a consultant Ms. Kausar Saeed. During the workshop, the participants compiled and finalised the document for the celebration of World Sexual Health Day event. The reflexive notes of all involved persons from PSO partner organizations in the project were reviewed through a participatory approach where the participants identified the gaps and gave recommendations on how to improve these notes further. The participants also contributed in developing an outline of the Rutgers WPF-Pak presentation for the forthcoming Regional Learning Forum at Indonesia.

Expressions

Crowded, stretched world awaits 7 billionth baby

By Nita Bhalla, Bhagpat, India

(Reuters) - The world's 7 billionth person will be born into a population more aware than ever of the challenges of sustaining life on a crowded planet but no closer to a consensus about what to do about it.

To some demographers the milestone foreshadows turbulent times ahead: nations grappling with rapid urbanization, environmental degradation and skyrocketing demand for healthcare, education, resources and jobs.

To others, a shrinking population, not overpopulation, could be the longer-term challenge as fertility rates drop and a shrinking workforce is pushed to support social safety for an aging populace.

"There are parts of the world where the population is shrinking and in those parts of the world, they are worried about productivity, about being able to maintain a critical mass of people," Babatunde Osotimehin, executive director of the U.N. Population Fund, told Reuters.

"Then there are parts of the world where the population is growing rapidly. Many of these countries face challenges in terms of migration, poverty, food security, water management and climate change and we need to call attention to it."

The United Nations says the world's seven billionth baby will be born on October 31.

No-one knows what circumstances the baby will be born into, but India's Uttar Pradesh -- a sugarcane-producing state with a population that combines that of Britain, France and Germany, in a country expected to overtake China as the world's most populous by 2030 -- provides a snapshot of the challenges it could face.

Pinky Pawar, 25, is due to give birth in Uttar Pradesh at the end of the month and is hoping her firstborn will not join the estimated 3 billion people living on less than $2 a day, with little hope of an education or a job. "I want my child to be successful in life, so I must do my best to make this possible," she said, her hands over her swollen belly as she sat outside her mud and brick home in Sunhaida village.

In Sunhaida, poverty, illiteracy and social prejudice mark a life dominated by the struggle for survival that mirrors millions of others across the world.

RESOURCE CRUNCH

With the number of people on earth more than doubling over the last half-century, resources are under more strain than ever before.

First among the short-term worries is how to provide basic necessities for the additional 2-3 billion people expected to be added in the next 50 years.

Water usage is set to increase by 50 percent between 2007 and 2025 in developing nations and 18 percent in developed ones, with much of the increased use in the poorest countries as rising rural populations move to towns and cities.

"The problem is that 97.5 percent of it (water) is salty and ... of the 2.5 percent that's fresh, two-thirds of that is frozen," says Rob Renner, executive director of the Colorado-based Water Research Foundation. "So there's not a lot of fresh water to deal with in the world."

Nutritious food is in short supply in many parts of the globe. The World Bank says 925 million people are hungry today, partly due to rising food prices since 1995, a succession of economic crises and the lack of access to modern farming techniques and products for poor farmers.

To feed the two billion more mouths predicted by 2050, food production will have to increase by 70 percent, the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization says.

But just as research, development and expansion of agricultural programs are critical, the public dollars pledged to this effort remain a pittance of what is needed, and are in fact in danger of sharp decline, experts say.

"We have to raise productivity," Robert Thompson, who serves on the International Food & Agricultural Trade Policy Council and is former director of rural development for the World Bank. "I think we can do it all if we invest enough in research. But at the moment we aren't."

Climate change could be the greatest impediment to meeting the food target as rising temperatures and droughts dry out farmlands which are then inundated by intense floods and storms.

The way climate change has been handled offers a window on how tricky it is to tackle global, long-term problems, however.

While it's clear what needs to be done, U.N. climate talks have largely stalled.

"There is a reason why these negotiations are relatively slow," said Wendel Trio, director of Climate Action Network Europe, referring to the economic downturn and arguments between rich and poor nations over carbon cuts.

"But if you compare it to the urgency and the fact that many governments clearly understand the urgency, it is a failure of governments that they can't move forward."

CITIES BURSTING AT SEAMS

Experts say demographic imbalances will also place serious strains on towns and cities across the world as mostly middle-class blue-collar migrants move from poorer rural areas to richer urban centers.

China's capital Beijing -- with its almost 20 million inhabitants -- is now the world's 13th most populous city, its population almost doubling over the last decade, reflecting a trend mirrored worldwide, particularly in developing nations.

Cities in Africa, Asia and South America are bursting at the seams from migrants seeking better jobs or as farmers flee droughts, floods and other environmental disasters.

In 1950, about 730 million people lived in cities. By 2009, it was nearly 3.5 billion and in four decades it will be 6.3 billion, the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs said in a March 2010 report.

That explosive growth stretches limited resources and infrastructure and places megacities on a collision course with a predicted increase in extreme flooding, storms and rising sea levels from climate change, U.N. Habitat says.

Experts say the lack of coordinated planning is exacerbating the problem.

"Any kind of plan for decentralizing the population requires a series of policies that work together," said Wang Jianguo, a senior project officer on urbanization at the Asian Development Bank's Beijing office.

"If you only have a population policy without an employment policy, without an industry development policy, education, medical policy, it won't work."

DEMOGRAPHIC ANOMALY

One important policy tool to manage a growing population is to give women access to family planning, experts say, adding that 215 million women worldwide want it but do not get it.

Access to education is also important as it motivates women to reduce their fertility and improve their children's health.

A lack of such education has meant that while the overall populations continue to rise in countries such as China and India, the number of women is falling because of a preference for boys leading to deliberate abortions of female babies.

The world is also seeing a demographic anomaly: a declining population in some richer countries has led to an imbalance between the working population and retirees who need expensive social safety nets.

The global fertility rate -- the number of children born per couple -- is around 2.5, but in richer countries this number has already nosedived.

And while exact predictions vary, most suggest the global population will peak at around 9 billion around 2070 and then start to fall, perhaps very fast.

"We thought that overpopulation was going to force humanity to expand outward to the stars," says Jack Goldstone, professor of social science and a leading demographics expert at Washington's George Mason University.

"That doesn't look like the problem at all. And the policy framework isn't set up at all to handle these longer-term issues."

Published in The News, September 04, 2011.
For online edition visit the link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/25/us-population-baby-idUSTRE79O4DZ20111025