Sustainable World Initiative
Open Working Group on the Sustainable Development Goals, 4th Session
19 June 2013 – Health and Population Dynamics
Sustainable World Initiative
Supplement to 1-minute statement from the floor
Of the human development factors—population, technology, and consumption—population is
oft neglected in the UN sustainable human development discourse. We hear the common
paradigm that human population trends are unalterable fate; that, no matter what investments we
make, there will be 9.6 billion people living on our planet in 2050, and 11 billion people by next
century. However, we would like to highlight one of the overarching messages from the
Technical Support Team Issues Brief on population dynamics: “Demography is not destiny.”
We respectfully implore the Open Working Group to consider human population as a critical
variable in the design of the SDGs, determined by the voluntary choices of individuals,
particularly by women.
At Sustainable World Initiative, we are investigating the linkages between sexual and
reproductive health and rights, population dynamics, economics, and natural resources. We have
conducted case studies on an economically and geographically representative collection of
nations. Our investigations focused on future public expenditures in education, health, and
infrastructure including water and sanitation, telecommunications, energy, and transportation.
The nations studied include Norway, India, the United States, Niger, and Bolivia. Across all
nations, North and South, developing and developed, incremental investment in sexual and
reproductive health and rights programs, including voluntary family planning programs
expanding individual choice and opportunity, yield a 5- to 20-fold return in public
expenditure savings by 2030. The Open Working Group should encourage further
investigation of similar cost-benefit analyses, in order to better understand the needed funding
for implementation, and how the future benefits can be reallocated to other areas.
These highly cost-effective sexual and reproductive health and rights investments are more than
good economic sense. They can contribute to stabilizing populations, and relieving already
excessive pressures on our planet’s finite resources. We can put ourselves on a path toward
true sustainability, but we must act now and act globally. The Open Working Group should
consider all policy options at our disposal, in order to reconcile our myriad goals including
ending poverty and hunger, facilitating economic growth for all nations and individuals, and
protecting scarce natural resources within planetary limits. For the sake of our children and
youth, and for the sake of all future generations, sexual and reproductive health and rights
investments are a crucial means to supplement sustainable consumption and production
patterns. Only by emphasizing the benefits of sexual and reproductive health and rights for
population dynamics will we facilitate the achievement of the socially, economically, and
environmentally sustainable societies for which we are all striving at the Open Working Group.
We therefore support the inclusion in the Sustainable Development Goals of a target for
ensuring women’s access to integrated, voluntary sexual and reproductive health and
rights, including voluntary family planning programs expanding individual choice and
opportunity. To measure progress on this target, we would also support the inclusion of an
indicator measuring the unmet need for family planning. This should be measured not only at
national levels, but also disaggregated by region, socioeconomic status, and age.
We understand the challenge that the Open Working Group faces in funding such programs in
the context of trade-offs and the politics of existing or competing public expenditures. While our
research shows that the investments in sexual and reproductive health and rights more than pays
for itself, there is, of course, the question of obtaining the initial funding to initiate these
investments. Sustainable World Initiative would like to support the comprehensive funding plan
presented by the Major Group on Children and Youth during Tuesday’s civil society meeting.
These proposals include redirecting subsidies from fossil fuels, a global tax on polluting
industries, and reductions in military spending.
19 June 2013 – Health and Population Dynamics
Sustainable World Initiative
Supplement to 1-minute statement from the floor
Of the human development factors—population, technology, and consumption—population is
oft neglected in the UN sustainable human development discourse. We hear the common
paradigm that human population trends are unalterable fate; that, no matter what investments we
make, there will be 9.6 billion people living on our planet in 2050, and 11 billion people by next
century. However, we would like to highlight one of the overarching messages from the
Technical Support Team Issues Brief on population dynamics: “Demography is not destiny.”
We respectfully implore the Open Working Group to consider human population as a critical
variable in the design of the SDGs, determined by the voluntary choices of individuals,
particularly by women.
At Sustainable World Initiative, we are investigating the linkages between sexual and
reproductive health and rights, population dynamics, economics, and natural resources. We have
conducted case studies on an economically and geographically representative collection of
nations. Our investigations focused on future public expenditures in education, health, and
infrastructure including water and sanitation, telecommunications, energy, and transportation.
The nations studied include Norway, India, the United States, Niger, and Bolivia. Across all
nations, North and South, developing and developed, incremental investment in sexual and
reproductive health and rights programs, including voluntary family planning programs
expanding individual choice and opportunity, yield a 5- to 20-fold return in public
expenditure savings by 2030. The Open Working Group should encourage further
investigation of similar cost-benefit analyses, in order to better understand the needed funding
for implementation, and how the future benefits can be reallocated to other areas.
These highly cost-effective sexual and reproductive health and rights investments are more than
good economic sense. They can contribute to stabilizing populations, and relieving already
excessive pressures on our planet’s finite resources. We can put ourselves on a path toward
true sustainability, but we must act now and act globally. The Open Working Group should
consider all policy options at our disposal, in order to reconcile our myriad goals including
ending poverty and hunger, facilitating economic growth for all nations and individuals, and
protecting scarce natural resources within planetary limits. For the sake of our children and
youth, and for the sake of all future generations, sexual and reproductive health and rights
investments are a crucial means to supplement sustainable consumption and production
patterns. Only by emphasizing the benefits of sexual and reproductive health and rights for
population dynamics will we facilitate the achievement of the socially, economically, and
environmentally sustainable societies for which we are all striving at the Open Working Group.
We therefore support the inclusion in the Sustainable Development Goals of a target for
ensuring women’s access to integrated, voluntary sexual and reproductive health and
rights, including voluntary family planning programs expanding individual choice and
opportunity. To measure progress on this target, we would also support the inclusion of an
indicator measuring the unmet need for family planning. This should be measured not only at
national levels, but also disaggregated by region, socioeconomic status, and age.
We understand the challenge that the Open Working Group faces in funding such programs in
the context of trade-offs and the politics of existing or competing public expenditures. While our
research shows that the investments in sexual and reproductive health and rights more than pays
for itself, there is, of course, the question of obtaining the initial funding to initiate these
investments. Sustainable World Initiative would like to support the comprehensive funding plan
presented by the Major Group on Children and Youth during Tuesday’s civil society meeting.
These proposals include redirecting subsidies from fossil fuels, a global tax on polluting
industries, and reductions in military spending.
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