| Abstract: | This policy study placed population policies into the wider context of North-South relations and sustainable development policies by presenting four perspectives regarding this topic: The Lipservice for Solidarity Perspective is characterized by well-meaning pledges and rhetoric by industrialized countries, but it lacks a serious follow-up; The Blame the Rich Perspective puts too much emphasis on individual women's reproductive rights and industrialized countries' policy failures, while it tends to overlook ancient local constraints on women's empowerment, which are rooted in cultural and socioeconomic behavioural patterns and make exercising women's rights illusory; The Sustainable Development Perspective is considered to be on the right track, but population priorities tend to get lost among many other objectives; The Intergenerational Perspective is seen as the preferred analytical framework, because it focuses on collective aspects of the development process, and on the ecosystem's carrying capacity. |
