Population dynamics and environmental linkages

The relationship of poverty, household environment and health is complex and context specific. There are a few studies that explore the linkages of poverty, household environment and health in urban India. Using the unit data from Indian Human Development Survey (IHDS), 2004-05 that covered over 40,000 households, this paper examines the linkages of poverty, environmental deprivations and short term morbidities (fever, cough and diarrhoea) in urban India. Poverty is measured in a multidimensional framework by incorporating dimensions of knowledge, income and employment, while environmental deprivation is measured using basic sanitation, cooking fuel and drinking water. A composite index combining multidimensional poverty and environmental deprivation is computed and classified as; multidimensional poor and poor environment, multidimensional poor and good environment, multidimensional non-poor and poor environment, and multidimensional non-poor and good environment. Controlling for socio-economic covariates, compared to those who are multidimensional non-poor and living in good environment, the odds ratio of having fever was 1.44 [CI: 1.34-1.56] among those multidimensional poor and poor environment, 1.33 [CI: 1.20-1.47] among those multidimensional non-poor but living in poor environment and similar for cough and diarrhoea.

The paper examines the population growth process and effects in the Yenagoa capital territory of Bayelsa State in the Niger Delta, Nigeria on housing need, demand and supply as well as the demand for residential land for owner-occupier housing production. Owner-occupier housing is the norm for residents in most urban areas of Nigeria, including Yenagoa since government has failed in providing adequate housing for the citizenry. For the purpose of data collection, three sets of the structured questionnaire were administered to households, the housing and land authorities respectively. Questionnaire items sought to examine population and socio-demographic characteristics of the resident population and housing need/demand and supply and the demand for urban land by residents, including accessibility, land acquisition routes, cost and constraints. Twenty out of twenty-six communities within the metropolitan area were surveyed. The study confirmed a strong correlation between increasing households and the demand for separate units of accommodation. About 91% of the resident population desire to own a house but low income, low savings and difficulties in obtaining land to build on and Government’s zoning regulations are constraints. The study suggests a re-evaluation of our urban development strategy.

Our paper will try to examine the various forms of power that are remarkable within the water network and how these, in turn are at the bases of uneven social power relations including mechanisms of access to water and exclusion from access to water. We observed that all social groups with sufficient social, political, economic or cultural power will never die of thirst. Cost recovery objectives are the most prevalent rate setting considerations and they are generally weighted the most essential. Other objectives are also important. Affordability for low and fixed income customers if not taken into consideration, can produce simultaneously regimes of access to the rich and exclusion of the poor. Evidence from three communities (Kumbo, Bali and Bafou) in the Western Highlands of Cameroon illustrates this general issue.

In this paper, we do an analysis of the socio-demographic and economics factors associated with land cover change and deforestation processes in the East province of Cameroon, a region that concentrates the biggest remnants of the western Cameroonian Equatorial Forest. The main objective is to analyze the role of demographic dynamics and socio-economic development upon deforestation processes, in the last 25 years, in this region and census tracts levels. We also look at role of conservation units and topography on deforestation. The methodology for the analysis is the integration of socio-demographic data (from Cameroonian demographic census – 1976 and 1987) and land cover change data (from satellite images – Landsat TM), at different levels of aggregation (spatial scales), in a geographic information system (GIS).

Despite the high maternal mortality ratio in Nigeria, utilization of maternal health care services has remained poor. Attempts to explain this situation have focused on individual and household determinants. The role of community characteristics has been largely ignored. Given that individuals live within households and households are embedded within communities, and the fact that individual decisions can be influenced by community characteristics, it becomes imperative to look beyond familial factors influencing the decisions to seek maternal health care. We examined community-level determinants of antenatal and delivery care in Nigeria. The sample population consists of women aged 15-49 years drawn from 2008 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey. Multilevel models were fitted to identify community factors associated with the use of antenatal and delivery care. Findings indicated that residence in communities with high proportion of women who delivered in a health facility was significantly associated with higher odds of having four or more antenatal care visits (OR=4.2, p<0.001) and health facility delivery (OR=17.2, p<0.001). Findings suggest the need to tailor interventions to the community context and increase women’s education and health facility delivery in disadvantaged communities.

Water-born and poor sanitation related diseases still account for much of the morbidity and mortality in India. Out of the 300 million urban dwellers in India 23% live in slums. This paper aims to examine the sanitation conditions of slums in Mumbai. 6.9 million Slum dwellers are residing in almost 2000 slum pockets in Mumbai, which constitutes 54% of the population of the city. Most of the slum households depend on inadequate public toilet facilities of very poor quality. Efforts and investments in sanitation have failed to alleviate the situation, as the local population has not been involved. Only recently a demand driven approach has been applied largely inspired by experiences in rural sanitation programmes. Still supply-driven initiatives by short-term political interests are, to some extent, eroding the resources available for sanitation. However, experiences from the last decade locally and globally, reveal that the demand-driven model is a way forward.

Important demographic regularities between fertility and child mortality rates in Indian states are strong positive correlation and roughly parallel decline over time. This suggests developing a dynamic relationship between them by using National Family Health Survey (NFHS) data. Vector Auto regressions (VAR) with exogenous variable methodology are employed to estimate their relationship. Our model estimated a fertility equation in which child mortality rate is an endogenous variable in simultaneous equations system and vice versa. The model yields implication for the number of children born per thousand reproductive periods of women and died before reaching age five per thousand live births during a particular period of time. In order to evaluate the accuracy of estimates, we compare our estimates with observed estimates which provide consistent result.

The world’s least developed countries that have the world’s highest population growth have contributed least to global greenhouse gas emissions. From this fact it is sometimes deduced that population growth has at best a weak influence on climate change in particular, or environmental degradation in general. This paper argues that this conclusion is hasty. While it is true that population growth has had only a small impact on the climate so far, population growth does have a significant effect on other natural resources. In the least developed countries high population growth is contributing to the highest rate of deforestation, the most significant pressures on natural land and the most serious water shortages, compared with other countries. High population growth paired with efforts to promote human wellbeing will inevitably further exacerbate these pressures on natural resources, including the climate. The paper explains the linkages between population growth and environmental degradation, and on this basis teases out critical policies to promote more sustainable development pathways. It argues that governments must not only promote greener and more inclusive economies but must also address population growth through human-centered and rights-based policies.

Urbanization is the process by which human habitations like cities and towns develop and grow into larger areas, which includes the movement of people from rural to urban areas as well as movements across towns and cities (UN-HABITAT 2002). Urbanization is the principal process among the five main processes integral to demographic transition; the others being mortality decline, population growth, fertility decline and population aging. Currently, different parts of the world are at different stages of urbanization. However, historically, the process of urbanization in India was very slow during the period of per-independence; but it was more progressive in the post independence period. Hence this particular aspect has been over exploited the natural resource and further it has resulted for several environmental problems in India. Increasing urbanization and related activities such as trade and commerce, construction boom and infrastructure development have been posed several challenges to the governments in order conserve environment. In this background the present paper tried to examine the overall status of urbanization in India at various levels by using census data. The issue of urbanization, resource degradation and its ultimate consequence on environment is highlighted for the study. Summary and Policy implications have be

Developing countries face ever increasing challenges in the area of food security. Among these challenges climate change is arguably one of the most serious and wide-spread threats, since it affects all regions of the world, albeit not equally. There is growing evidence that climate change is decreasing the productivity of many crops around the world, thus increasing the risk of food shortages in developing countries where agricultural systems are low-tech and malnutrition is common. While population growth is often mentioned as a contributing factor to food changing the rate of population growth is rarely seen as a climate change adaptation policy alternative.
We developed a computer simulation model to help clarify the dynamic relationships between climate change, food security and population growth. The model links a population projection, a computable general equilibrium economic model that takes account of the effects of climate change on agriculture, and a food requirements model of the population that uses FAO formulas.
We piloted the model in Ethiopia. The model shows that, as expected, climate change will exacerbate the food security gap in Ethiopia but that lowering population growth will reduce the gap to a level that is close to that without climate change.