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Wednesday 16 november 2022

Biden-Xi summit: What Biden wants, what Xi wants

Continued from Front it as the more children you
have, the more benefits.
“We are already over- And you are actually over-
stretching what we have taking your peers who can-
— the housing, roads, the not have as many children.
hospitals, schools. Every- It looks like a competition in
thing is overstretched,” said villages.”
Gyang Dalyop, an urban Politics also have played a
planning and develop- role in Tanzania, where for-
ment consultant in Nigeria. mer President John Magu-
The U.N.’s Day of 8 Billion fuli, who ruled the East Afri-
milestone Tuesday is more can country from 2015 until
symbolic than precise, of- his death in 2021, discour-
ficials are careful to note aged birth control, saying
in a wide-ranging report that a large population was
released over the summer good for the economy.
that makes some stagger- He opposed family plan-
ing projections. ning programs promoted
The upward trend threat- by outside groups, and in a
ens to leave even more 2019 speech urged women
people in developing not to “block ovaries.” He
countries further behind, even described users of
as governments struggle to contraceptives as “lazy”
provide enough classrooms in a country he said was
and jobs for a rapidly grow- awash with cheap food.
ing number of youth, and Under Magufuli, preg-
food insecurity becomes nant schoolgirls were even
an even more urgent prob- banned from returning to
lem. classrooms.
Nigeria is among eight But his successor, Samia Su-
countries the U.N says will luhu Hassan, appeared to
account for more than reverse government policy
half the world’s popula- in comments last month
tion growth between now when she said birth control
and 2050 — along with fel- People enjoy the Ipanema beach, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, Nov.13, 2022. was necessary in order not
Associated Press
low African nations Congo, to overwhelm the country’s
Ethiopia and Tanzania. Kyungu, a Kinshasa truck “Global evidence shows the children born last year public infrastructure.
“The population in many driver who has six children. that a small portion of the to mothers under 20 world- Even as populations soar
countries in sub-Saharan Af- “Two studied while others world’s people use most of wide were in sub-Saharan in some countries, the U.N.
rica is projected to double waited because of money. the Earth’s resources and Africa. says rates are expected to
between 2022 and 2050, If I didn’t have so many chil- produce most of its green- Still, any effort to reduce drop by 1% or more in 61
putting additional pres- dren, they would have fin- house gas emissions,” said family size now would nations.
sure on already strained ished their studies on time.” Poonam Muttreja, execu- come too late to signifi- The U.N. report put the cur-
resources and challenging Rapid population growth tive director of the Popu- cantly slow the 2050 growth rent U.S population at 337
policies aimed to reduce also means more people lation Foundation of India. projections, the U.N. said. million, reaching 375 mil-
poverty and inequalities,” vying for scarce water re- “Over the past 25 years, About two-thirds of it “will lion in 2050. The population
the U.N. report said. sources and leaves more the richest 10% of the glob- be driven by the momen- growth rate in 2021 was just
It projected the world’s families facing hunger as al population has been re- tum of past growth.” 0.1%, the lowest since the
population will reach climate change increas- sponsible for more than half “Such growth would occur country was founded.
around 8.5 billion in 2030, ingly impacts crop produc- of all carbon emissions.” even if childbearing in to- “Going forward, we’re go-
9.7 billion in 2050 and 10.4 tion in many parts of the According to the U.N., the day’s high-fertility countries ing to have slower growth
billion in 2100. world. population in sub-Saharan were to fall immediately to — the question is, how
Other countries rounding “There is also a greater Africa is growing at 2.5% around two births per wom- slow?” said William Frey, a
out the list with the fastest pressure on the environ- per year — more than an,” the report found. demographer at the Brook-
growing populations are ment, increasing the chal- three times the global av- There are also important ings Institution.
Egypt, Pakistan, the Philip- lenges to food security that erage. Some of that can cultural reasons for large “The real wild card for the
pines and India, which is is also compounded by be attributed to people liv- families. In sub-Saharan Af- U.S. and many other devel-
set to overtake China as climate change,” said Dr. ing longer, but family size rica, children are seen as a oped countries is immigra-
the world’s most populous Srinath Reddy, president remains the driving factor. blessing and as a source of tion.”
nation next year. of the Public Health Foun- Women in sub-Saharan Af- support for their elders — Charles Kenny, a senior fel-
In Congo’s capital, Kin- dation of India. “Reducing rica on average have 4.6 the more sons and daugh- low at the Center for Glob-
shasa, where more than 12 inequality while focusing on births, twice the current ters, the greater comfort in al Development in Wash-
million people live, many adapting and mitigating global average of 2.3. retirement. ington, says environmental
families struggle to find af- climate change should be Families become larger Still, some large fami- concerns surrounding the 8
fordable housing and pay where our policy makers’ when women start having lies “may not have what billion mark should focus on
school fees. While elemen- focus should be.” children early, and 4 out of it takes to actually feed consumption, particularly
tary pupils attend for free, Still, experts say the bigger 10 girls in Africa marry be- them,” says Eunice Azimi, in developed countries.
older children’s chances threat to the environment is fore they turn 18, accord- an insurance broker in La- “Population is not the
depend on their parents’ consumption, which is high- ing to U.N. figures. The rate gos and mother of three. problem, the way we con-
incomes. est in developed countries of teen pregnancy on the “In Nigeria, we believe that sume is the problem — let’s
“My children took turns” not undergoing big popu- continent is the highest in it is God that gives chil- change our consumption
going to school, said Luc lation increases. the world — about half of dren,” she said. “They see patterns,” he said.q