PEDA advocacy booklet : the nexus

Abstract

During the past three decades, there has been a discerned shift in focus from dealing with sectoral issues to considerations of linkages. This paradigm shift is best exemplified by the discussions that have dominated major United Nations Conferences since the 1970s on Population, Environment and Food Security.

At the United Nations Conference on Human Environment held in Stockholm in 1972, discussions were mainly on the environment. By the time of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992, the links between rapid population growth, environmental degradation and poverty were generally acknowledged. The conference, dubbed the Earth Summit, also popularized the concept of sustainable development, which raised the issue of intergenerational equity with respect to the use of natural resources. The issue of sustainability and the need to adopt a holistic approach to development problems were also underlined in the UN global conferences in Copenhagen, Cairo, Beijing and Rome where social, population, gender and food issues were discussed respectively.