VID Colloquium
World Population Policies: Their Origin, Evolution, and Impact
John F. May, Center for Global Development, Washington DC.
Date: Wed, 8 Aug. 2012, Time: 16:00 - 17:00
The presentation explores the history behind the formulation, implementation, and evaluation of population policies in the more developed, the less developed, and the least developed countries from 1950 until today, as well as their future prospects. First, the presentation links population policies and their underlying theories with the models of the demographic, epidemiological, and migratory transitions. Then, it reviews the early efforts to reduce mortality and fertility in the developing countries. This is followed by a description of the internationalization of the debate on population issues, essentially through the organization of international population conferences and the creation of population institutions. The initial population programs were transformed thereafter into more formal population policies, particularly in the developing countries. The presentation also covers the situation of the developed countries and their specific challenges—sub-replacement fertility, population aging, and immigration. The issue of the effectiveness of population policies is also examined. The presentation finally explores the way forward and the future prospects for population policies over the next decades.
About the presenterJohn F. May, a Belgian national, is a specialist in population policies and programs. A former Lead Demographer at the World Bank, he is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Center for Global Development (CGD) in Washington, DC. Prior to joining the World Bank in 1997, he worked on many population projects around the world for UNFPA, UNICEF, USAID, and the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP). He was posted in Haiti, West Indies, and New Caledonia, South Pacific for the United Nations. He came to the US in 1987 and was appointed Senior Scientist at The Futures Group International, a consulting firm offering services in population and HIV/AIDS modeling, policy, and program design. In 1991–1992, he spent a year as a Visiting Scholar at the Population Reference Bureau (PRB). He is also an Adjunct Professor of Demography at Georgetown University, Washington, DC. He published recently “World Population Policies: Their Origin, Evolution, and Impact” (Springer, 2012). He earned a BA in Modern History (1973) and a MA in Demography (1985) from the Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium), and received his Doctorate in Demography Summa cum laude (1996) from the University of Paris-V (Sorbonne).