The ideological divides and the uptake of research evidence - The case of the United Nations World Population Conferences

Population policies have been supported and considerably boosted by the activities of the United Nations, and in particularly by the UN Commission on Population and Development, the UN Population Division, and the United Nations Population fund (UNFPA). The authors document how the researcher community has presented a significant body of research evidence to world leaders in view of their policy deliberations and decision-making at the UN World Population Conferences in Bucharest in 1974, Mexico City in 1984 and Cairo in 1994. The focus in this contribution on the last three 20th century population conferences is explained as follows. Scientific world population conferences in Rome 1954 and Belgrade 1965 were organised under the auspices of the UN as deliberation events. The Bucharest conference of 1974 was a turning point because it was a political event, in which representatives of 149 member states not only debated but also decided about the draft World Population Plan of Action (WPPA) in which principles and directives for population policy and action were formulated. The two following conferences followed along the same action oriented rationale. The authors review policy achievements and missed opportunities of the three last world population forums from a scientific point of view by examining how research evidence was used for informing and transforming global population policies.