The INFO Project Blog

The connection between family planning and reducing environmental degradation, like the impact of global warming, is becoming more emphasized, for example in the meeting series by the Environmental Change and Security Program (we blogged about a recent talk).

Rachel Nugent, Senior Health Program Associate at the Center for Global Development, writes in a recent blog post about an Op-Ed in the New York Times on consumption differences between rich and poor countries as a factor responsible for “our global sustainability crisis.”

Nugent wisely points out on the CGD blog that,

we won’t come close to solving global warming, or broader issues of resource sustainability, if we don’t address both numbers of people and consumption levels. The number of people in the world (and their distribution and ages) affect overall consumption directly; and through a variety of indirect channels, affect other economic outcomes that have a bearing on sustainability. This includes GDP (with links to population through labor supply, savings, and human capital investment) and its distribution.

She also points to a little known study by Birdsall, Sindling, and Kelley showing slower population growth improves economic income.

Emphasizing the role of voluntary family planning as a crucial tool in development is important. There are macro effects of supportive family planning policies within countries looking to spur economic development, and these links should be emphasized by reproductive health program managers looking for support from governments.

Ultimately, family planning boils down to providing individuals and families with the power to choose the size of their family, and the space between children. Without looking at graphs showing resource scarcities, individuals given the choice to plan and space their children’s births have chosen to do so in nearly every setting, and found manifold benefits for themselves and their family.