Vol. 544 No. 5
55 Mr. Broughan asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if his attention has been drawn to the recently published UN report, State of the World Population 2001; the steps the Government will take to deal with the issues raised in the report; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29230/01]
This year's State of the World Population Report, published earlier this month by the UNFPA, United Nations Population Fund, focuses on the broad challenges for development as a result of changes in the size, rate of growth and distribution of human population. The report provides, in addition, a dramatic profile of how soaring population growth can affect the world's environment and its capacity for social and economic development. Pressure on land, forests, atmosphere and water is severe and will increase in line with projected population increases which, at current estimates, could reach over nine billion people by 2050.
The global population, which has now exceeded six billion, is putting immense pressure on developing countries, particularly in the urban areas of the poorest countries. In this context, Ireland Aid sees the concept of sustainable development as a critical framework for all of our development co-operation work and has put in place systematic procedures for assessing the environmental as well as the social and economic dimensions of aid programmes. Ireland Aid is also increasingly focusing attention on the provision of basic education and health care which we believe is the key to a stable world population. We have sharply increased our support for the work of the UNFPA in recent years and, as part of our multi-annual budgetary planning, we have given indicative commitments for the next two years which will effectively result in a doubling of our current level of funding to £2 million by 2003. The rate of increase in Irish support for the fund is now the highest among donor countries.
The UNFPA report makes a valuable contribution to the preparations for the ten year review of progress since the Rio Earth Summit which will take place in South Africa in September 2002. It reminds us of the scale and the immensity of the global challenges that have to be tackled if we are to promote development that is sustainable and balances and integrates economic, social and environmental concerns. The Department of Foreign Affairs, together with the Department of the Environment and Local Government and other relevant Departments, is participating in the preparations, both national and international, for the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg next year.
