Vol. 5 No. 2 (2021)
Comment

It’s Time to Revisit the Cairo Consensus

Christopher Tucker
American Geographical Society
Text-only image of the cover of this issue, grey green background.

Published 2021-08-01

Keywords

  • Cairo Consensus,
  • Population Growth,
  • Ecological Destruction,
  • Women’s Empowerment,
  • Fertility Reduction,
  • Sustainable Population
  • ...More
    Less

How to Cite

Tucker, Christopher. 2021. “It’s Time to Revisit the Cairo Consensus”. The Journal of Population and Sustainability 5 (2):63–73. https://doi.org/10.3197/jps.2021.5.2.63.

Abstract

Just over a quarter century ago, the so-called ‘Cairo Consensus’ was forged, fundamentally improving how governments worldwide, international organisations, and the NGO community approached women’s reproductive health and reproductive rights on the world stage. Yet, the deafening silence this consensus offered on issues of runaway population growth has had massive repercussions on the world we live in today, with the ever-increasing human footprint fuelling climate change and ecological destruction on a scale that was entirely predicted. Given what we know now about how empowering, just and ethical strategies focused on women and girls can effectively bend the global population curve, it is time that we revisit the Cairo Consensus.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

  1. Chesler, E., 2011. Was Planned Parenthood’s founder racist? Salon. 2 November.
  2. Cox, V., 2005. Margaret Sanger: rebel for women’s rights. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers.
  3. DenHoed, A., 2016. The forgotten lessons of the American eugenics movement. The New Yorker, [online] 27 April. Available at: https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-forgotten-lessons-of-the-american-eugenics-movement [Accessed 9 June 2021].
  4. Dunlop, J., 2000. John D. Rockefeller 3rd, statesman and founder of the Population Council. Population Today, 28(6), p.3.
  5. Harding, R., 2018. A proposal for a United Nations framework convention on population growth. Mother Pelican, 14(2) [online] Available at: http://www.pelicanweb.org/solisustv14n02supp1.html#section9 [Accessed 9 June 2021].
  6. Hickel, J., 2018. Is it possible to achieve a good life for all within planetary boundaries? Third World Quarterly, 40(1), pp.18–35. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2018.1535895.
  7. Hickel, J., 2019.The contradiction of the sustainable development goals: growth versus ecology on a finite planet. Sustainable Development, 27, pp.873–884. https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.1947.
  8. Latson, Jennifer. 2016. What Margaret Sanger Really Said About Eugenics and Race. Time Magazine. October 14th.
  9. O’Neill, D.W., Fanning, A.L., Lamb, W.F. et al., 2018. A good life for all within planetary boundaries. Nature Sustainability 1, pp.88–95. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-018-0021-4.
  10. Ripple, W.J., Wolf, C., Newsome, T.M., Barnard, P., Moomaw, W.R., 2020. world scientists’ warning of a climate emergency. BioScience, 70(1), pp.8–12. https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biz088.
  11. Sachs, J., 2005. The end of poverty: how we can make it happen in our lifetime. New York: Penguin Press.
  12. Sinding, S.W., 2016. Reflections on the changing nature of the population movement. The Journal of Population and Sustainability, 1(1), pp. 7–14.
  13. Tucker, C.K., 2020. We know how many people the Earth can support. Journal of Population and Sustainability, 5(1), pp.77–85.
  14. Vollset, S.E., et al., 2020. Fertility, mortality, migration, and population scenarios for 195 countries and territories from 2017 to 2100: a forecasting analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study. The Lancet, 396(10258), pp.1285–1306. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30677-2.