Beyond Cairo: changing directions for population policies in the Asia-pacific region

The 1994 Cairo conference on population and development decided that programs designed to reduce fertility should change their emphasis from family planning to improving women’s health. For some advocates, fertility reduction was a minor (even suspect) goal compared to the enhancement of women’s rights. For others, the reproductive-health approach was judged a more humane, and ultimately more effective, way of reducing fertility. Gavin Jones evaluates these arguments and considers their probable impact on population policy in the Asia-Pacific region. Copyright. Monash University and the author/