Measures to control population growth and, thus, reducing poverty were making "real progress", but there were still inadequate resources, gender biases and gaps in serving the poor and adolescents that undermined further progress over the challenges that are mounting.
A UN-sponsored report released here on Wednesday said some 2.8 billion people - two in five - still struggled to survive on less than $2 per day and poor health and rapid population growth rates were perpetuating poverty. The surveyors attributed this to the sluggishness of the policy makers to address inequitable distribution of health services and information making poor people poorer.
The 113-page detailed study ordered by the United Nations Family Planning Association reviews the first 10 years of the action plan adopted at Cairo in 1994 that had set 20 years to attain the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG) aimed at ending extreme poverty and hunger. The plan was approved by 179 countries seeking to balance world's people with its resources, improve women's status and ensure universal access to reproductive health care.
Another factor frustrating the millennium goals, the report pointed out was the failure of donor nations to provide $ 6.1 billion per annum for population and reproductive health programmes by 2005. The amount calculated to a third of the total needs, but until two years ago (2002) the available figures put the contributions to around $ 3.1 billion, only half of their commitment.
Developing country domestic expenditures for the action plan package in 2003 were about $ 11.7 billion. But a large proportion of this came from a few large countries. The poorest countries depended heavily on donor funding that was still far less than required.
In his remarks at the launching of the report before a group of family planning activists and helping non-governmental organisations (NGOs), Federal Population Welfare Minister Chaudhry Shahbaz reported a "steadfast approach to build a national consensus" towards achieving a balance between population growth and resources.
He said the overall vision was to gain population stabilisation by 2020 by completion of demographic transition that would entail declines in fertility and mortality rates. The minister also spoke of a strong realisation at "our highest level about the consequences of rapid population growth and treated it as one of the three priority areas for action".
United Nations Population Fund Representative Dr Olivier Brasseur reported an increase from 12 percent to 34 percent over the last 12 years.
He also spoke of "impressive gains" made in 151 countries since the Cairo conference had adopted measures to protect the rights of girls and women. A total of 131 nations had changed national policies, laws or institutions to recognise the reproductive rights.
Several countries, Dr Brasseur said, including Pakistan had begun to integrate reproductive health services into primary health care and expand family planning choices.
In summing up the progress in the field of family planning since the Cairo conference of 1994, the UN report noted:
1. More than 350 million couples still lacked access to full range of family service.
2. While fertility was falling in many regions, world population would increase from 6.4 billion today to 8.9 billion in 2050 with half of the poorest countries tripling in size, to 1.7 billion.
3. Complications of pregnancy and child birth remained a leading cause of death and illness among women with 529,000 deaths every year, mostly from preventable causes.
4. Five million new HIV infections occurred during 2003; women were yearly half of all infected adults and nearly three-fifths of those in sub-Saharan Africa.