Appel à propositions pour la 6e journée Conférence Africaine sur la Population (UEPA)

Une annonce complète est publiée sur le site web de l’UEPA à l’adresse suivante : [->http://www.uaps-uepa.org/publishfr.php?recordID=53] The Sixth African Population Conference December 5-9, 2011 First announcement Theme : African Population: Past, Present and Future One of the outstanding characteristics of the African continent is the growth of its population since the second half of the 20th century. Africa’s population increased from 227 million in 1950 to the current level of about 1 billion, and it is projected to increase to 2 billion by 2050. Its share in the world population is also increasing from 9 % to 22 % according to United Nations estimates. During the period 1920-1950, the estimated average annual growth of the African population was 1.5 %. In the 1950s, the growth rate was around 2.0%, peaking at 2.9% in 1980-1990 and then declining thereafter (2.3 % in 2000-2010). This demographic development of the continent is, to a certain extent, the reflection of the progress in public health measures and medical technology (particularly through the spread of vaccination, medicine, access to safe water, etc) which has resulted in a noticeable drop in morbidity and mortality since the end of the 1950s. However, fertility levels continue to be high. This dynamics of the African population have continued, and have sometimes led to stormy discourse on the relationships between population and development, as portrayed by the discussions during the first conference on population held in Bucharest in 1974. Some of these issues were reiterated in subsequent meetings such as the Mexico Conference (1984) and the Cairo conference (1994), which marked a decisive turning point in the approach to population issues. The paradigm has shifted from a perspective centred on demographic policies and the slowing down of demographic growth to that of the improvement of people’s living conditions. The implementation of various economic and population policies in the last 50 years has led to diverse experiences on the continent. There have also been international agenda to promote economic development, good governance and improvement in social outcomes since the beginning of the 1990s. Among them are the New Economic Partnerships for Africa (NEPAD), the Millennium Development Goals among others. Within the period there have been tremendous changes in population and social indicators: Declines in infant mortality, declines or at least stabilization of HIV/AIDS prevalence, and improvement in school participation. In the area of education, some countries have either achieved or are close to achieving the targets in the Millennium Development Goal 2. Notwithstanding these improvements, the continent is still facing challenges in the population and the social sectors: maternal mortality and infant mortality are still high; malaria and HIV/AIDS continue to claim lives both within the population of children and young people and within that of adults of working ages in African countries. The outcome of the Education for All reveals that although significant progress has been made a good number of countries among which are African countries are far from achieving the objectives set for 2015. While only 14.4 % of the continent’s population were living in towns in 1950, this proportion is estimated to be 61.6 % in 2050: this fast growing urbanisation presents opportunities for socio-economic transformation. But it also creates numerous needs in terms of basic social services like health, education, employment, drinking water and quality housing. The issue of the quality of the environment, both in the rural area (vegetal cover degradation) and in towns (increasing pollution) and the effects of climate change are becoming apparent. However, opportunities exist and should be taken advantage of: in effect, the process of demographic transition going on in many African countries will progressively create optimum conditions for more investments in human capital due to the decreasing dependency ratio. This decline of the dependency ratio that will occur in many countries in the coming 20 – 30 years could bring about a «demographic dividend» (acceleration of economic growth as witnessed in other developing regions), if effective policies for education, skills training and employment of the increasing manpower are implemented. Between 2010 and 2012, 24 African countries, about half of the countries on the continent, will commemorate their fiftieth anniversary of achieving political sovereignty. This important event provides an opportunity for the continent to take stock of its population issues and at the same time project into the future in relation to challenges and progress in the social, economic, and environmental aspects of development. Among the issues are the level of attention which has been given in the political agenda to population and development issues in Africa and how has this been reflected in policies; the population and development challenges which African countries face and the policies being implemented to respond to the challenges; the strategies which can be pursued to improve population and socioeconomic indicators in the coming decades; the role and contribution of all stakeholders (scientists, decision makers, civil society and development partners) to the achievement of development objectives in the continent, the unique opportunities for African countries for socio-economic transformation. These are some of the issues population and development experts will be invited to discuss during the 6th African Population Conference. Conference Announcement : 1 Dec-2010 Suggestions for sessions and sub-themes from members and stakeholders : 31-Dec-2010 Detailed Call for Papers and Abstracts Released : 31-Jan-2011 Conference Launch in Host Country : 17- Feb-2011 On-line Submission of abstracts starts : 17-Feb-2011 Deadline for submission of abstracts : 31-May-2011 Communication of review decisions from session organizers : 30-Jun-2011 Information to authors of posters and additional sessions, including member/partner initiated meetings to be incorporated in the main programme : 31-Jul-2011 Request for financial support by eligible participants : 31-Jul-2011 On-line registration starts : 31-Aug-2011 Revision of final abstracts to be published in the Conference Programme : 31-Aug-2011 Applications for exhibit stands, side meetings, and workshops : 31-Aug 2011 Release of preliminary conference programme : 30 Sep-2010 Submission of papers to discussants and session chairs : 30-Sept-2011 Deadline for on line registration : 31-Oct-2011 General session themes : 1. Fertility 2. Mortality 3. Migration (voluntary and involuntary) 4. Urbanisation 5. Conflicts and Africa’s development 6. Population structure and demographic transition 7. Women, gender, family and households 8. Children and young people 9. Adult health and the elderly 10. Population and emerging health challenges 11. Sexual and reproductive health 12. Child and maternal health 13. Population, education, and human capacity 14. Population, climate change and environment 15. Population, wellbeing and economic growth 16. Population Policies 17. Population and disabilities 18. New methodologies of data collection and analysis 19. Best practices in addressing population challenges 20. Other sub-themes (following suggestions made by members and stakeholders through the scientific committee) Call for proposals for sessions: Members of the Union and stakeholders are invited to make proposals for themes and sub-themes for supplementary sessions that will be reviewed by the International Scientific Committee. The deadline for sending the proposals is December 31, 2010. Proposals should be sent to the following e-mail address : [->6apcthemes@uaps-uepa.org] 2010-12-06