Poster session on Population and development

Peteris Zvidrins, University of Latvia
E –mail: zvidrins@lanet.lv
The paper deals with characterization of main demographic processes in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR) .The current demographic situation in the BSR is characterised by significant difference. The population of the Nordic countries is increasing consistently whereas in the former Soviet Union republics (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia) and in Poland a characteristic feature of the demographic development is decrease of the population (depopulation) due to very low fertility, comparatively high mortality and emigration of working population, mainly to the West Europe. The level of depopulation is very high in Latvia, Lithuania and Russia, including Northwest Russia. In Germany, in the first decade of the 21st century the population was already declining nevertheless positive net migration. The role of the Nordic countries in the Region is rising.The study shows that the BSR is among most ageing in the world. According to the calculations of the author, the rank of Germany by three ageing indicators is the 2nd the highest in the world (after Japan). Very high level of ageing is observed also in Finland and Sweden, but the lowest –in Russia and Poland.

Comprehensive data on financial resources in reproductive health sector is critical for planners and policy makers, particularly in developing countries. Low level of funding for reproductive health is a cause of concern, given that RH service utilization in the vast majority of the developing world is well below the desired levels. Though there is an urgent need to track the domestic and international financial resource flows for reproductive health, the instruments through which financial resources are tracked in developing countries are limited. In this paper we examined the methodological and conceptual challenges of monitoring financial resources for family planning and reproductive health services at the international and national level. Results suggest that the Creditor Reporting System (CRS), which is the best possible data source to track donors contribution fails to give the complete picture of the Official Development Assistance (ODA) for reproductive health. At the national level Reproductive Health sub-accounts (RHA) suffers from country specific challenges related to definitional and boundary issues of RH activities. Lastly, weak link between data production by the RHA and its application by the stakeholders and lack of political will act as decelerate factor for the institutionalization of RHA at the country leve

This paper uses economy, energy, resources and environmental monitoring data to analyse the natural economic condition in Northeast China, and then bases on studies of sub-resources to analyse population carrying capacity.

First of all, this paper analyzes the current land capacity in Northeast China. The comparison farmland data of from 1993 to 2008 shows that the land resources are relatively abundant in Northeast China, so the land carrying capacity in this region is strong.

Second, we use the principal component analysis to study the water carrying capacity. The results show that the first principal component is the unit of the per capita GDP, urbanization rate, water emissions per capita GDP, and the second principal component is the unit of per capita water resources and arable land water resources.

Third, this paper uses ecological footprint to study the ecological carrying capacity of Northeast China. In 2007, ecological deficit per capita reached 2.115 which indicated that Northeast China is in serious ecological deficit status.This paper builds a model of three programs to calculate ecological optimum population size. In 2007 the maximum value of ecological optimum population is 105.449 million, slightly lower than the existing population.

Poor households find it difficult to finance their health expenditure which leads to poor health and non utilization of the health care. The catastrophic payment as defined in the literature in terms of a threshold share of expenditure may not be comparable across the expenditure hierarchy rather than conceptualising the same in terms of source of financing the health expenditure. The notion of `disproportionate’ may well depend on how one finances the same? The objective of this paper is to examine the socio-economic vulnerability of the household incurring catastrophic expenditure in terms of its source of finance and role of an event in incurring catastrophic payment. Further, it also attempts to figure out the type of morbidities associated with catastrophic payment. This paper uses the National Sample Survey Organization data on Morbidity and Health Care during Junuary-June 2004. Catastrophic payment in health care need not only be based on the criterion of disproportionateness but also its source of financing, which is evident from this analysis. Further, catastrophic payments are selectively conditioned by intra-household relational domain and household vulnerabilities associated with presence/absence of children and elderly. Instead of focussing on universal health care we should focus on the most vulnerable population.

Access to basic amenities like drinking water, sanitation, electricity, housing, drainage and others are crucial to the well-being as they contribute to physical and material comfort and quality of life. In the recent years, many international agencies like UNDP, UNESCAP, UN-HABITAT, ADB, World Bank and others have advocated and highlighted the importance of basic amenities for well-being and raising the standards of living. Indian government have also launched several plans and policies for the same in urban and rural areas. The emphasis on the disparities in the access to basic amenities across the economic groups, caste, ethnic and religious groups brings out the issues of exclusion, discrimination and deprivation persisting in the society. This paper has examine the disparities in the access to basic amenities across caste, ethnic, religious and economic groups and also their cross classifications to bring out insightful details for rural and urban India during 1993, 2002 and 2008-09 using NSSO, Household Amenities Surveys unit record data. Findings of this study implies that various policies on basic amenities such drinking water, sanitation, electricity, housing qualities and drainage arrangement needs to be supplemented with pro poor and group specific policies for raising the overall standard of life and well-being.

The sex ratio at birth in China has exceeded 107 for nearly 30 years. This paper reviews the policy responses to gender imbalance in China, which include China's strategic policies and actions on the governance of the male-skewed Sex Ratio at Birth (abbreviated as SRB). First, as its official position has evolved, the Chinese government has introduced a series of laws and regulations at both the national and provincial levels. Second, this paper analyzes a national government-oriented public policy system and strategic platform, the "Care for Girls" Campaign, including its history and latest progress. These policy responses and interventions have substantially enhanced women's social status and reduced the SRB. This paper highlights policy responses and their results using the latest Population Census data to assess changes in SRB during the decade from 2000 to 2010 in China.

While there is a consistent body of literature on household demography, land use, and migration in agricultural frontiers, especially in the Amazon, few studies address changes in households’ poverty due to change in their portfolio of capitals. This paper provides insights on poverty experience among rural households as frontier evolves from settlement to expansion and market integration. Building on the livelihoods approach, we focus on the estimation of time spent in poverty according to key household capitals, which have been shown to affect household well-being. Empirical evidence on how these capitals affect rural household income and poverty experience are provided by novel longitudinal data for Machadinho d’Oeste, Rondônia, in the Brazilian Amazon. Different from other household level data in the Amazon, ours include interviews applied to settlers at the onset of the settlement project, back to 1985, with follow-ups up to 2010, covering a 25 years period. We concentrate in the panel 1987-1995 to simulate how improvement in key capitals would impact the average time each household spent as poor and non-poor. This evidence will contribute to similar simulations based upon other study areas in the Amazon and in Thailand, providing material for meta-analysis of poverty and capitals in agricultural frontiers worldwide.

Objective We estimate increases in reproductive-age life expectancy (RALE) in select African countries over the past 20 years and the proportion of overall gains attributable to decreases in maternal mortality. Methods RALE is the average number of years that women at age 15 would be expected to live between 15 and 49 if current mortality situations prevail. Using multiple rounds of data from country-specific Demographic and Health Surveys, we calculate all-cause mortality and maternal-mortality eliminated life tables to estimate gains in RALE from the mid-1990s until present day. We will also estimate the proportion of RALE gains that arose as a result of declining maternal mortality and gains that could be garnered should maternal mortality be eliminated. Preliminary Results We estimate that gains in RALE from elimination of maternal mortality fluctuate between .15 and 1.5 years across countries. Elimination of maternal mortality makes up between 4% to 46% of potential gains in RALE if all mortality were eliminated. Conclusions Maternal mortality is a relatively rare event, yet it is still a very important component of RALE. Averting the burden of maternal deaths could return a significant increase in the most productive ages of human life.

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.

This paper aims to present results from the research titled “The Living Place of the Excluded from and by the Metropolis”. The investigation analyses the population dynamics among low-income emigrants departing from Belo Horizonte – MG, Brazil, the metropolitan core, toward its neighboring cities: Ribeirão das Neves, Vespasiano, Santa Luzia, Sabará e Ibirité. Thus, we seek to understand and qualify this population dispersal process within Belo Horizonte’s Metropolitan Region. We deploy a hybrid analysis, based on historical cartography and satellite imagery, to analyze the behavior of the urban sprawl emanating from Belo Horizonte between 1918 to 2010. We conjugate this procedure with the analysis of the 2000 and 2010 Census migration data on the population below the poverty line. Results reveal a consistent out-migration trend among the poor from Belo Horizonte, fomented by their incapacity to afford the costs of living in the main city, especially those related to housing.