World Population Day 2014

The Rotarian Action Group for Population and Development encourages the observance of World Population Day, July 14, 2014, a day put forth by the United Nations Population Fund to call attention to the population issue. The focus of UNFPA this year is on adolescent pregnancy. About 16 million girls under age 18 give birth each year. In the developing countries, 19 of every hundred girls have their first child by 18 and of these 3 are 15 or younger. The vast majority – 90 per cent -- of the pregnant adolescents in the developing world are married. Thus, even more than the problem of unwelcome pregnancies among unmarried teenagers, this is frequently an issue of the rights of young women to freely consent to marriage. Empowerment of women, a concern of many Rotary projects and one of the areas of RFPD activity, is central to addressing the issue. For more information about the UNFPA focus please go to:

http://www.unfpa.org/public/world-population-day

To assist your club to have a meeting observing World Population Day, or perhaps even for you to make presentations to other clubs, we have provided the following materials:

A PowerPoint presentation created by George Prather, PhD, noting the 2014 theme and also tracking recent trends in fertility and the latest UN Population Division projections of population and making an appeal to Rotarians to become involved in this issue through RFPD. Extensive notes provide a basic script if you desire or you may wish to modify this presentation to better suit your needs.

To find historical data on population and projections of population for your country, go to http://esa.un.org/wpp/Excel-Data/population.htm and click on the data file, Total Population—Both Sexes.

You might also want to substitute figures for your country for another in one of the charts of the PowerPoint tracking comparative changes in fertility. For this go to http://esa.un.org/wpp/Excel-Data/fertility.htm and click on the data file Total Fertility (TFR). We have also provided a file, FertilityCharts.xls, which you can use to modify one of the existing slides to include your country by inserting a new row  in the appropriate the three tables or substitute the name and data for your country for one of those in the chart and then replace the relevant chart in the PowerPoint with your new chart. Alternatively, you might want to make a comparison of several countries in your region and create a new slide for the PowerPoint. The Excel file can also work as a template for this purpose. 

We encourage you to use these and other materials such as those to be found at www.UNFPA.org to publicize World Population Day. In a Rotary district in India there will be a district wide event. In one district in the US, fourteen individual club presentations have already been scheduled. You might also consider writing letters to your local newspaper calling attention to World Population Day and the focus on this issue which RFPD is providing within Rotary and our communities.

Please also let us know of these activities and particularly if you use the PowerPoint as the basis for a club or other presentation. Your activities need to be publicized to other members of RFPD, and results this year will help us plan for a more effective observance in 2015. Send your results to Mwillis@rifpd.org.

For assistance in making changes to the PowerPoint or accessing population data, contact George Prather, PhD, RFPD Volunteer Information Technology Manager at rfpd.judyprather@mail.com. 

Attachments:

World Population Day Club Presentation.ppt

Fertility_Charts.xls