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Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development
Chapter 11 : Population, Development and Education
A. Education, population and sustainable development
B. Population information, education and communication
A. Education, population and sustainable development
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Basis for action
11.1. In the past 20 years, the world has experienced a rise in educational levels.
Although the differences in educational attainment between males and females have shrunk,
75 per cent of illiterate persons in the world are women. Lack of basic education and low
levels of literacy of adults continue to inhibit the development process in every area.
The world community has a special responsibility to ensure that all children receive an
education of improved quality and that they complete primary school. Education is an
indispensable tool for the improvement of the quality of life. However, it is more
difficult to meet educational needs when there is rapid population growth.
11.2. Education is a key factor in sustainable development: it is at the same time a
component of well-being and a factor in the development of well-being through its links
with demographic as well as economic and social factors. Education is also a means to
enable the individual to gain access to knowledge, which is a precondition for coping, by
anyone wishing to do so, with today's complex world. The reduction of fertility, morbidity
and mortality rates, the empowerment of women, the improvement in the quality of the
working population and the promotion of genuine democracy are largely assisted by progress
in education. The integration of migrants is also facilitated by universal access to
education, which respects the religious and cultural backgrounds of migrants.
11.3. The relationship between education and demographic and social changes is one of
interdependence. There is a close and complex relationship among education, marriage age,
fertility, mortality, mobility and activity. The increase in the education of women and
girls contributes to greater empowerment of women, to a postponement of the age of
marriage and to a reduction in the size of families. When mothers are better educated,
their children's survival rate tends to increase. Broader access to education is also a
factor in internal migration and the composition of the working population.
11.4. The education and training of young people should prepare them for career
development and professional life in order to cope with today's complex world. It is on
the content of the educational curricula and the nature of the training received that the
prospects of gainful employment opportunities depend. Inadequacies in and discrepancies
between the educational system and the production system can lead to unemployment and
underemployment, a devaluing of qualifications and, in some cases, the exodus of qualified
people from rural to urban areas and to "brain drain". It is therefore essential
to promote harmonious development of educational systems and economic and social systems
conducive to sustainable development.
Objectives
11.5. The objectives are:
(a) To achieve universal access to quality education, with particular priority being
given to primary and technical education and job training, to combat illiteracy and to
eliminate gender disparities in access to, retention in, and support for, education;
(b) To promote non-formal education for young people, guaranteeing equal access for
women and men to literacy centres;
(c) To introduce and improve the content of the curriculum so as to promote greater
responsibility and awareness on the interrelationships between population and sustainable
development; health issues, including reproductive health; and gender equity.
Actions
11.6. The eradication of illiteracy is one of the prerequisites for human development.
All countries should consolidate the progress made in the 1990s towards providing
universal access to primary education, as agreed upon at the World Conference on Education
for All, held at Jomtien, Thailand, in 1990. All countries should further strive to ensure
the complete access to primary school or an equivalent level of education by both girls
and boys as quickly as possible, and in any case before the year 2015. Attention should
also be given to the quality and type of education, including recognition of traditional
values. Countries that have achieved the goal of universal primary education are urged to
extend education and training to, and facilitate access to and completion of education at
secondary school and higher levels.
11.7. Investments in education and job training should be given high priority in
development budgets at all levels, and should take into account the range and level of
future workforce skill requirements.
11.8. Countries should take affirmative steps to keep girls and adolescents in school
by building more community schools, by training teachers to be more gender sensitive, by
providing scholarships and other appropriate incentives and by sensitizing parents to the
value of educating girls, with a view to closing the gender gap in primary and secondary
school education by the year 2005. Countries should also supplement those efforts by
making full use of non-formal education opportunities. Pregnant adolescents should be
enabled to continue their schooling.
11.9. To be most effective, education about population issues must begin in primary
school and continue through all levels of formal and non-formal education, taking into
account the rights and responsibilities of parents and the needs of children and
adolescents. Where such programmes already exist, curricula should be reviewed, updated
and broadened with a view to ensuring adequate coverage of such important concerns as
gender sensitivity, reproductive choices and responsibilities, and sexually transmitted
diseases, including HIV/AIDS. To ensure acceptance of population education programmes by
the community, population education projects should emphasize consultation with parents
and community leaders.
11.10. Efforts in the training of population specialists at the university level should
be strengthened and the incorporation of content relating to demographic variables and
their interrelationships with development planning in the social and economic disciplines,
as well as to health and the environment, should be encouraged.
B. Population information, education and communication
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Basis for action
11.11. Greater public knowledge, understanding and commitment at all levels, from the
individual to the international, are vital to the achievement of the goals and objectives
of the present Programme of Action. In all countries and among all groups, therefore,
information, education and communication activities concerning population and sustainable
development issues must be strengthened. This includes the establishment of gender- and
culturally sensitive information, education and communication plans and strategies related
to population and development. At the national level, more adequate and appropriate
information enables planners and policy makers to make more appropriate plans and
decisions in relation to population and sustainable development. At the most basic level,
more adequate and appropriate information is conducive to informed, responsible
decision-making concerning health, sexual and reproductive behaviour, family life, and
patterns of production and consumption. In addition, more and better information about the
causes and benefits of migration can create a more positive environment for societies to
address and respond to migration challenges.
11.12. Effective information, education and communication are prerequisites for
sustainable human development and pave the way for attitudinal and behavioural change.
Indeed, this begins with the recognition that decisions must be made freely, responsibly
and in an informed manner, on the number and spacing of children and in all other aspects
of daily life, including sexual and reproductive behaviour. Greater public knowledge and
commitment in a democratic setting create a climate conducive to responsible and informed
decisions and behaviour. Most important, they also pave the way for democratic public
discussion and thereby make possible strong political commitment and popular support for
needed action at the local, national and international levels.
11.13. Effective information, education and communication activities include a range of
communication channels, from the most intimate levels of interpersonal communication to
formal school curricula, from traditional folk arts to modern mass entertainment, and from
seminars for local community leaders to coverage of global issues by the national and
international news media. Multichannel approaches are usually more effective than any
single communication channel. All these channels of communication have an important role
to play in promoting an understanding of the interrelationships between population and
sustainable development. Schools and religious institutions, taking into account their
values and teachings, may be important vehicles in all countries for instilling gender and
racial sensitivity, respect, tolerance and equity, family responsibility and other
important attitudes at all ages. Effective networks also exist in many countries for
non-formal education on population and sustainable development issues through the
workplace, health facilities, trade unions, community centres, youth groups, religious
institutions, women's organizations and other non-governmental organizations. Such issues
may also be included in more structured adult education, vocational training and literacy
programmes, particularly for women. These networks are critical to reaching the entire
population, especially men, adolescents and young couples. Parliamentarians, teachers,
religious and other community leaders, traditional healers, health professionals, parents
and older relatives are influential in forming public opinion and should be consulted
during the preparation of information, education and communication activities. The media
also offer many potentially powerful role models.
11.14. Current information, education and communication technologies, such as global
interlinked telephone, television and data transmission networks, compact discs and new
multimedia technologies, can help bridge the geographical, social and economic gaps that
currently exist in access to information around the world. They can help ensure that the
vast majority of the world's people are involved in debates at the local, national and
global levels about demographic changes and sustainable human development, economic and
social inequities, the importance of empowering women, reproductive health and family
planning, health promotion, ageing populations, rapid urbanization and migration. Greater
public involvement of national authorities and the community ensure the widespread
diffusion of such technologies and the freer flow of information within and between
countries. It is essential that parliaments have full access to the information necessary
for decision-making.
Objectives
11.15. The objectives are:
(a) To increase awareness, knowledge, understanding and commitment at all levels of
society so that families, couples, individuals, opinion and community leaders,
non-governmental organizations, policy makers, Governments and the international community
appreciate the significance and relevance of population-related issues, and take the
responsible actions necessary to address such issues within sustained economic growth in
the context of sustainable development;
(b) To encourage attitudes in favour of responsible behaviour in population and
development, especially in such areas such environment, family, sexuality, reproduction,
gender and racial sensitivity;
(c) To ensure political commitment to population and development issues by national
Governments in order to promote the participation of both public and private sectors at
all levels in the design, implementation and monitoring of population and development
policies and programmes;
(d) To enhance the ability of couples and individuals to exercise their basic right to
decide freely and responsibly on the number and spacing of their children, and to have the
information, education and means to do so.
Actions
11.16. Information, education and communication efforts should raise awareness through
public education campaigns on such priority issues as: safe motherhood, reproductive
health and rights, maternal and child health and family planning, discrimination against
and valorization of the girl child and persons with disabilities; child abuse; violence
against women; male responsibility; gender equality; sexually transmitted diseases,
including HIV/AIDS; responsible sexual behaviour; teenage pregnancy; racism and
xenophobia; ageing populations; and unsustainable consumption and production patterns.
More education is needed in all societies on the implications of population-environment
relationships, in order to influence behavioural change and consumer lifestyles and to
promote sustainable management of natural resources. The media should be a major
instrument for expanding knowledge and motivation.
11.17. Elected representatives at all levels, the scientific community, religious,
political, traditional and community leaders, non-governmental organizations, parents'
associations, social workers, women's groups, the private sector, qualified communication
specialists and others in influential positions should have access to information on
population and sustainable development and related issues. They should promote
understanding of the issues addressed in the present Programme of Action and mobilize
public opinion in support of the actions proposed.
11.18. Members of Parliament are invited to continue to promote wide awareness on
issues related to population and sustainable development and to ensure the enactment of
legislation necessary for effective implementation of the present Programme of Action.
11.19. A coordinated strategic approach to information, education and communication
should be adopted in order to maximize the impact of various information, education and
communication activities, both modern and traditional, which may be undertaken on several
fronts by various actors and with diverse audiences. It is especially important that
information, education and communication strategies be linked to, and complement, national
population and development policies and strategies and a full range of services in
reproductive health, including family planning and sexual health, in order to enhance the
use of those services and improve the quality of counselling and care.
11.20. Information, education and communication activities should rely on up-to-date
research findings to determine information needs and the most effective culturally
acceptable ways of reaching intended audiences. To that end, professionals experienced in
the traditional and non-traditional media should be enlisted. The participation of the
intended audiences in the design, implementation and monitoring of information, education
and communication activities should be ensured so as to enhance the relevance and impact
of those activities.
11.21. The interpersonal communication skills - in particular, motivational and
counselling skills - of public, private and non-governmental organization service
providers, community leaders, teachers, peer groups and others should be strengthened,
whenever possible, to enhance interaction and quality assurance in the delivery of
reproductive health, including family planning and sexual health services. Such
communication should be free from coercion.
11.22. The tremendous potential of print, audiovisual and electronic media, including
databases and networks such as the United Nations Population Information Network (POPIN),
should be harnessed to disseminate technical information and to promote and strengthen
understanding of the relationships between population, consumption, production and
sustainable development.
11.23. Governments, non-governmental organizations and the private sector should make
greater and more effective use of the entertainment media, including radio and television
soap operas and drama, folk theatre and other traditional media to encourage public
discussion of important but sometimes sensitive topics related to the implementation of
the present Programme of Action. When the entertainment media - especially dramas - are
used for advocacy purposes or to promote particular lifestyles, the public should be so
informed, and in each case the identity of sponsors should be indicated in an appropriate
manner.
11.24. Age-appropriate education, especially for adolescents, about the issues
considered in the present Programme of Action should begin in the home and community and
continue through all levels and channels of formal and non-formal education, taking into
account the rights and responsibilities of parents and the needs of adolescents. Where
such education already exists, curricula and educational materials should be reviewed,
updated and broadened with a view to ensuring adequate coverage of important
population-related issues and to counteract myths and misconceptions about them. Where no
such education exists, appropriate curricula and materials should be developed. To ensure
acceptance, effectiveness and usefulness by the community, education projects should be
based on the findings of socio-cultural studies and should involve the active
participation of parents and families, women, youth, the elderly and community leaders.
11.25. Governments should give priority to the training and retention of information,
education and communication specialists, especially teachers, and of all others involved
in the planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of information, education and
communication programmes. It is necessary to train specialists who can contribute to the
important conceptual and methodological development of education concerning population and
related issues. Therefore, systems for professional training should be created and
strengthened with specializations that prepare them to work effectively with Governments
and with non-governmental organizations active in this field. In addition, there should be
greater collaboration between the academic community and other entities in order to
strengthen conceptual and methodological work and research in this field.
11.26. To enhance solidarity and to sustain development assistance, all countries need
to be continuously informed about population and development issues. Countries should
establish information mechanisms, where appropriate, to facilitate the systematic
collection, analysis, dissemination and utilization of population-related information at
the national and international levels, and networks should be established or strengthened
at the national, subregional, regional and global levels to promote information and
experience exchange.
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