POPULATION POLICIES
BY DR. OHAKA JUSTICE
OUTLINE
I. WHAT IS A POLICY?
II. BASIS FOR A POLICY
[Link] FORMULATION PROCESS
[Link] POLICIES AND TYPES
V. EXAMPLES OF POPULATION
POLICIES
[Link] POLICY IN NIGERIA
WHAT IS A POLICY?
A policy is a set of government statements and actions that
are designed to influence the behaviour of the people in order to
achieve a desired objective/outcome.
General Statement of understanding which guide decision
making.
It is more than a mere statement of goals, it includes;
How the stated goals can be achieved
Who will carry out the tasks
In what manner?
WHAT IS A POLICY?
Government actions can be categorized into five
broad “policy instruments”
Information
Laws and regulations
Taxes and price controls
Direct spending/investments
Research
WHAT IS A POLICY?
Example of Application of a policy
instrument.
If a policy Objective is to; Reduce HIV/AIDS
transmission
The instruments will apply as follows; POLICY
INSTRUMENTS
Mass communication programs about
HIV/AIDS Information
Legal actions on commercial sex Laws and regulations
Subsidize the distribution of condoms Taxes and price
Provide free diagnosis and treatment of controls
HIV/AIDS Direct
Develop an HIV/AIDS vaccine spending/investments
OTHER DEFINITIONS OF
POLICY
A Set of Ideas or Plans that is used as a
basis for decision making.
Attitude and actions of an organization
regarding a particular issue.
BASIS FOR A POLICY
To set values/standards
Indicates commitments of governments and other
authorities
Assesses current situation
Gives an image of a desired future situation
POLICY FORMULATION
PROCESS
The following stages are involved:
1. Identify a population problem:
(e.g. High HIV prevalence)
2. Formulate your goals, objectives and targets:
(To reduce HIV prevalence by 50% in 2030)
3. Define strategies of meeting the goals:
(use policy instruments such as: Information, Laws, Price controls, Investments and
Research)
4. Implementation of strategies:
(e.g. Mass communication programs about HIV/AIDS, Legal actions on commercial
sex, free distribution of condoms, free diagnosis and treatment of HIV/AIDS, Develop
HIV/AIDS vaccine).
5. Monitoring and Evaluation of Progress made.
POLICIES
There are different policies that can
exist in a country or in organizations.
Example of policies related to health
include;
The National Health Policy
Nutrition Policy
Population Policy
POPULATION POLICIES AND
TYPES
What is Population Policy?
Measures formulated by the Government which may influence the
size, distribution or composition/structure of the human
population.
A deliberate effort by a government to influence the demographic
variables such as fertility, mortality and migration.
Set of coordinated laws aimed at reaching some demographic goals.
POPULATION POLICIES AND
TYPES
What is PopulationCan also can be defined as:
Policy? A wide range of decisions and
Government
actions taken by the
government, both direct and
Policy indirect, which influences
individual and family decisions
Intentional regarding marriage and
Program
childbearing, working
arrangements, place of
Impacts residence, etc.
Population
TYPES OF POPULATION
POLICIES
Direct or Explicit Policies – Government actions
taken for the purpose of affecting a demographic
outcome , e.g., migration laws, policies on fertility
and reproduction.
Indirect or Implicit Polices – government
actions that only indirectly have some demographic
effects, e.g., promoting female education.
EXPLICIT VERSUS IMPLICIT POLICIES
EXAMPLE: SLOWING POPULATION
GROWTH
Explicit/Direct Implicit/Indirect
Policies Policies
Provide free family Compulsory secondary
planning services. education
Increase taxes for each Restrict child labour
additional child Limit size of houses
Restrict immigration Raise status of women
Raise the age of marriage
POPULATION POLICIES
AFFECTING FERTILITY
Policies affecting fertility are categorized into 3
which are:
A. Pro-natalist policies - Policies aimed at keeping
fertility rates high.
B. Anti-natalist policies - Policies aimed at reducing
fertility rates.
C. Laissez-faire - Some countries do not have
explicit population policies in place.
PRO-NATALIST POLICIES
These are policies aimed at keeping fertility rates high,
thereby increasing the size, structure and distribution of a
population.
Since you cannot physically force people to have children,
most pronatalist policies come along with incentives such as;
Money
Increased paternity and maternity period
Free or subsidized child care
Free/subsidized healthcare and education
EXAMPLES OF PRO-NATALIST POLICIES:
ANCIENT POPULATION POLICIES
“God created male and female in His
image, and He blessed them and said
‘Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and
subdue it, rule over the fish in the sea, the
birds in the heaven and every living thing
that moves upon the face of the earth.”
(The Bible, Genesis: 1 vs 27&28).
EXAMPLES OF PRO-NATALIST POLICIES:
ANCIENT POPULATION POLICIES
Under Emperor
Augustus, Rome, 9BC - Under Louis XIV, Europe1666
18AD
To encourage more births among Roman Penalties for celibacy
citizens the Emperor gave laws that:
Partial tax exemption for early
Encouraged child marriage. marriage
Made marriage a civic duty; unmarried Lifetime tax exemption for father of
men cannot hold public office or receive
inheritance 10 children, and, pension for father of
12 children (10 legitimate), provided
Gave fathers preferential public positions none are celibate priests or nuns in
Awarded mothers distinctive ornaments the family.
Emigration forbidden under penalty
of death.
E XAMPLES OF PRO-NATALIST POLICIES: MODERN
POPULATION POLICIES
Singapore's pro-natalist policy:
Singapore is a developed country in Asia with a population of about 5 million
people.
For many years the government has tried to increase the population size as
the fertility rate in the country is low and 36 percent of Singapore's population
are immigrants and 80% of the working population are foreigners.
Key features of the policy includes;
Increased maternity leave to 12 weeks
Payment for maternity leave for first 4 babies
Payment of child benefits. The government pays about $1000 for six years to
cover for child care.
Sponsor of dating organizations to encourage early marriage and child births
ANTI-NATALIST POLICIES
These are policies aimed at reducing birth rates in a country or
community to decrease the size, structure and distribution of a
population.
A country introduces anti-natalist policies when there is over
population or the population is more than the available resources.
Or if there is a high population of young people which indicates
high birth rates.
Anti-natalist policies are done through;
Mass education on family planning
Provision of effective family planning services
Rigid forced policies like China’s one-child policy
E XAMPLES OF ANTI-NATALIST POLICIES: CHINA’S
ONE-CHILD POLICY
Key features of China’s one-child policy include:
Introduction of the one-child policy in 1980
The policy was focused in urban areas which was over
populated with young people.
Healthcare subsidies were given to one-child families
The was priority healthcare, house allocation, educational
provision and extra food rations to one-child families.
Promoting use of contraceptives and delayed marriages.
E XAMPLES OF ANTI-NATALIST POLICIES: CHINA’S
ONE-CHILD POLICY
Punishment for not following the law included; job loss, no
access to education, forced abortion for second pregnancy.
Only those in the rural areas in farming occupations were
allowed to have two children to ease the burden on the
farms.
Due to the consequent drop in fertility rates, changes were
recently made to China’s one-child policy.
In November 2013, the China government announced the
decision to relax the one-child policy.
Under the new policy, families could have two children if
one parent or both, was an only child.
MORTALITY AND MIGRATION
POLICIES
Population policies are also made to reduce mortality and check on migration.
Some countries have immigration policies that allow foreigners to come in and work
with certain incentives/benefits such as free or subsidized healthcare and education.
Examples of such countries are; Canada, Switzerland, Sweden, etc.
POLICIES TO CONTROL MORTALITY
The rise of infectious diseases such as Ebola, SARS, TB, and HIV and AIDS, together
with the crumpling of the health delivery system of developing nations, have led to
increased mortality.
Therefore policies to control these health problems are developed to reduce
mortality.
POPULATION POLICY IN
NIGERIA
Population policy in Nigeria was first approved in 1988.
As a result of emerging issues such as HIV/AIDS, poverty, food
insecurity, etc., the policy revised in 2004.
The policy outlines six specific goals and 10 targets at the
national level to drive implementation.
Nigeria’s Population Policy desires to solve health related issues
and to prevent its explosive population growth.
POPULATION POLICY IN
NIGERIA
GOALS TARGETS
Sustained economic growth, poverty 1. Reduce national population growth rate to 2 percent or lower by
2015.
eradication, protection and preservation
of the environment. 2. Reduce total fertility rate by at least 0.6 children every five years
Health.
Achieve a balance between the rate of 3. Increase modern contraceptive prevalence rate by at least 2
population growth and available percent per year.
resources. 4. Reduce the infant mortality rate to 35 per 1,000 live births by
2015.
Reach a demographic transition of
5. Reduce the child mortality rate to 45 per 1,000 live births by 2015.
reasonable birth rates and low death
6. Reduce the maternal mortality rate to 125 per 100,000 live births
rates. by 2010,and 75 by 2015.
Improve reproductive health of all 7. Achieve 25 percent reduction in HIV adult prevalence every five
Nigerians years
8. Eliminate gap between men and women in enrolment in
Accelerate immediate response to secondary, tertiary, vocational, and technical education and
HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases. training by 2015.
9. Eliminate illiteracy by 2020.
Achieve a balance in rural/urban
development. 10. Achieve sustainable universal basic education as soon as possible
prior to the year 2015.
POPULATION POLICY IN
NIGERIA
ACHIEVEMENT’S IN NIGERIA’S POPULATION
WEAKNESSES IN NIGERIA’S POPULATION POLICY
POLICY
Awareness creation and the use Not yet achieved a reduction in fertility
of contraceptives for fertility control. rate of 0.6 children every 5 years. Our
total fertility rate is about 5.4 (2020).
Accessibility and availability of modern
methods of contraceptives.
Yet to achieve a reduction in population
growth rate of 2%. Still at about 2.5%.
Reduction in infant and child mortality
rates.
Yet to achieve elimination of illiteracy.
Improvement in maternal health. Current adult literacy rate is about 62%.
Indicating that more than 30% of
Nigerian adults cannot read and write.
Increased awareness on ways to prevent
HIV/AIDS.
POPULATION CONFERENCES
Due to the impact of population increase on the socio-economic
development of countries, conferences have been held to gather
experts to discuss the problems of overpopulation.
The first World Population Conference was held at the Geneva in
Switzerland in 1927.
It was organized by Margaret Sanger.
The conference was an attempt to bring together international
experts on population, food supply, fertility, migration and health to
POPULATION CONFERENCES
Below is a chronicle of international population conferences held to
deliberate on issues of populations.
World Population Conference at Geneva, 1927
World Population Conference in Rome, 1954
World Population Conference in Belgrade, 1965
World Population Conference in Bucharest, 1974
International Conference on Population in Mexico , 1984
International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo,
1994
General Assembly 21st special session in New York, 1999
International Population conference in Korea, 2013 (UN, 2013)
WHAT YOU LEARNED TODAY
Meaning of Policy and policy instruments
Basis and the process of Policy formulation
Definition of Population policies and types (Direct
and Indirect)
Pro-natalist and Anti-natalist Population policies
Population policy in Nigeria, its merits and demerits.
Population conferences.
THANK YOU