World Economic Forum and UNFPA: Include Population in Water, Food, Energy Nexus
NEW YORK and GENEVA — (March 2012) The World Economic Forum‘s Network of Global Agenda Councils and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) called on global leaders, particularly organizers of the Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development scheduled for June 2012, to integrate population in research, discussion and debate at the intersection of water, food and energy.
“We reaffirm the global commitment to poverty reduction and sustainability, and emphasize that we will not reach these objectives without addressing the nexus between water, food, energy and population dynamics; governments, the private sector and civil society need to take population dynamics into consideration,” the joint statement said.
J. Carl Ganter, Circle of Blue’s managing director and a co-author of the document, said, “These issues are intrinsically interlinked. Water, food, energy and population issues need to be viewed systemically, beyond traditional thinking, outside of traditional silos.” Ganter is a member of the Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Water Security.
The document is available here, or from the World Economic Forum website here.
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Not to include population and women’s access to education, health, (particularly reproductive health and family planning) and human rights in any discussion of poverty alleviation and sustainability is leaving out the main piece of the puzzle. I am cofounder of 34 Million Friends of the United Nations Population Fund. Look it up! Cheers!