Despite enormous gains in the wellbeing and economic circumstances of

hundreds of millions of people, 10% of the world's population still live on

less than $2 a day. High population growth traps individuals, communities
and even entire countries in poverty. Achieving sustainable population
levels, locally and globally, helps people achieve the dignity and standard of
living we all deserve.
 
“ We cannot confront the massive challenges of poverty, hunger, disease and
environmental destruction unless we address issues of population and
reproductive health.”
– Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, UN Under-Secretary-General 2000-2010
POVERTY
While billions enjoy an affluent style, more than a tenth of the world’s
population live in extreme poverty today. Poverty is not a consequence of
limited global resources, but political and economic injustice. However, the
poorest people are almost always at greatest risk from environmental damage,
climate change and competition for resources. The effects of unsustainable
population hit the poorest first, and hardest.
FAMILY SIZE AND POVERTY
The world's poorest countries tend to have the largest family sizes and fertility
rates. When people have no economic security and cannot rely on their
government and a social safety net, they often have children to ensure they
will be looked after when they are older. Where child mortality is high, there is
an even greater impetus to have more children. Those circumstances can lead
in turn to a culture which values high family size.
This understandable human impulse can contribute to a vicious cycle. Poor
families with large numbers of dependent children may perceive the need to
take children out of education early, or marry off their daughers young. They
will also often live in deprived communities where access to modern family
planning is limited. All these factors combine to keep family sizes high,
perpetuating the cycle.
"My statement that ‘development is the best contraceptive’ became widely
known and oft quoted. 20 years later I am inclined to reverse this, and my
position now is that ‘contraception is the best development’.”
– Karan Singh, Indian politician
What applies to families, applies also to nations. In poorer countries,
providing jobs, infrastructure, health services and education to a constantly
growing population can be an impossible task. In the worst cases, even food
can be impossible to supply. In countries with very high population growth,
huge numbers of dependent children in comparison to economically
productive adults create a further burden. In sub-Saharan Africa, the median
age of the entire population is just 19 years old. In Niger, the country with the
world's highest fertility rate, the median age is just 15.3 years.
 
“The high population is exerting a lot of pressure on our economy. As a
country we have made tremendous gains over the years but the impact is not
reflected on our economy because the gains have been dissipated by
population growth”
– Goodall Gondwe, minister of Finance, Malawi, 2017
In contrast, countries which have been successful in bringing down their
fertility rates, have moved out of poverty more quickly.
 Every year of school attendance cuts the Nigerian birth rate by a tenth.
LOCAL ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION
While people living in poverty make a minuscule impact on global
environmental problems such as climate change, they can have a devastating
impact on their local environment. Soils may be eroded in an attempt to
increase crop yields, fish stocks decimated to provide food and local forests
razed for timber and firewood. These actions, along with increasing conflict
between humans and wildlife and hunting of animals for food can have a huge
impact on biodiversity. 
Environmental damage can have wider impacts. For instance, in places where
there is no water supply and no refuse collection, people are obliged to use and
discard plastic packaging or bottles, sometimes in waterways, contributing to
plastic pollution in the oceans. The perception that poverty equates to a low
environmental footprint does not hold true in many circumstances.

SOLUTIONS
The recipe for ending population growth is positive and simple:

 Lift people out of poverty

 Provide universal access to modern family planning
 Empower women
 Education
 Encourage and incentivise smaller families

There are direct relationships between economic development, access to

education and reductions in fertility rates. It is essential that we do all we can
to end global poverty and secure universal, high quality education for all
children and young people. Those cannot be effective, however, without high
quality, modern family planning - and the opportunity, freedom and desire to
use it. More than 200m women have an unmet need for modern contraception
- meaning that they don't want to get pregnant but are not using
contraception. This can be becaue they do not have access to it, because their
circumstances prevent them from using it or because, as is often the case, they
have concerns about side-effects or how to use it effectively. Beyond that, in
some places there is still a cultural preference for larger families.
If all of these methods are used in combination, they are most effective, and
have secured dramatic reductions in fertility rates in many countries.
POPULATION AND WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT IN
KENYA
Wendo Aszed, Founder of our Empower to Plan programme partner
Dandelion Africa, explains the challenge of rapid population growth in Kenya
and how enabling women to access modern contraception has changed lives
for the better.

FAMILY PLANNING IN RURAL AFRICA