Population matters.

• Position: Interview - Thoraya Obaid - Interview

The Bush administration in July cut $34 million in funding for international family planning. Plans for the Johannesburg World Summit in August failed to address population growth as an environmental issue. Here, Thoraya Obaid, the Executive Director of the UN Population Fund, talks about getting the world to pay attention to population.

World Watch: As a Saudi Arabian woman, how have you changed your thinking on efforts to curb population growth since you began working on these issues?

Thoraya Obaid: My thinking on curbing population growth is beyond my nationality. I am a practitioner of development, and I know that decreasing population growth is essential if we are to fight poverty, and if we are to have healthy women and healthy families.

This agenda is on the table in Saudi Arabia. Since 2000, the Saudi Arabian Minister of Planning has made statements on the need to look at population growth in Saudi Arabia, because it is as much a factor as health and education in the development of the country.

WW: Part of what has taken place in the last 20 years regarding population is that many activists have shifted away from talking about the numbers, and have been talking more about improving women's lives. Do you think this new emphasis will work to reduce or stabilize population growth?

TO: Certainly, I do. Once you talk about quality of life, you are talking about women being able to determine the number of children and spacing between their children. You are talking about basic social services, including universal access to reproductive healthcare. And once you talk about helping women and couples to make decisions about their families, you're talking about improving the health of women, improving the economy of the country, relieving pressure on the educational and health systems, and so on.

Also, you're shifting from focusing on demographics to looking at improving health: reducing maternal mortality, decreasing morbidity, and preventing the spread of diseases like HIV/AIDS. Quality of life does make a difference. That is an aspect of population that does not come through the numbers. It only comes when you are talking about the rights of men and women to determine the direction of their lives.

WW: Are there some examples that you would point to where this shift to focusing on quality of life has been most successful?

TO: Population as a whole is a success story. Within the last 20 or 30 years population growth has slowed. Families are...