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By Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, UNFPA Executive Director

World Population Day: On this day, the UN marks the anniversary of the day, in 1987, when the world's population exceeded 5 billion. This is a day to think about population-related issues in an ever more crowded world.

Every country counts its people. The numbers tell decision-makers about current and future needs. “Everyone counts” is the theme for this year’s World Population Day.

If people and their characteristics aren’t counted, governments can’t plan. If identification is not granted, it is impossible to track progress over a lifetime. If a birth certificate indicates a need for schooling, that informs the education system. If death records specify, to the extent possible, cause of death, health systems can be oriented to meet actual needs. If death records specify causes related to HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases, pregnancy and childbirth, specific health services can be prioritized. Government planning depends on local and regional information that is supplemented by interviews with the groups most concerned. Such data makes it possible to meet real needs.

Good data is critical for evidence-based policies and programmes for improving people’s lives. Yet while timely and reliable data is routine in richer countries, many resource-constrained developing countries struggle to conduct the censuses and surveys that they need for effective planning.

For the past 30 years, UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, has played a lead operational role in helping to build countries’ capacities for data collection and analysis. A current focus of UNFPA support is successful implementation of the 2010 round of population and housing censuses (2005-2014).

In 2009, UNFPA supported 77 governments’ national population and housing censuses and paved the way for other censuses in 2010. This work is often complex, as in Iraq, the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Sudan. In Eastern Europe and Central Asia, UNFPA is promoting new data collection technologies and assisting Bosnia and Herzegovina to conduct a census. In Africa, UNFPA is helping to analyze data collected by recent censuses in Chad, Liberia and Nigeria. All these countries could not complete their censuses in 2000 and Liberia’s successful census ended a period of more than 30 years in which no statistical work could be done. In Asia and the Pacific, the enumerations have successfully concluded in Bhutan, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Viet Nam and censuses are being prepared for East Timor and Mongolia. In Latin America and the Caribbean national statistical institutes are participating in training to enhance skills for data collection and
analysis.

Census data reveals compelling characteristics about employment, education and health services in countries. It provides information about population growth, the movements of people, age structures, poverty levels, urbanization and the spatial distribution of a country’s population. Countries can use that information to plan investments, save lives and improve opportunities for present and future generations.

With world attention focused on achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, and the upcoming MDG10 Summit at the United Nations in September, the availability of consistent and comparable statistical information has become even more crucial. Data for development plays a prominent role in monitoring progress, assessing and realigning plans and strategies, and conducting effective advocacy. Data, and public access to it, contributes to transparency and accountability.

By Sara Svensson

My name is Sara Svensson, and I’m from Sweden. Tomorrow is my 25th birthday, but I won’t be eating birthday cake this year.

I’ve been involved in different kinds of climate activism for most of my life. I studied International Project Management for Social Movements and NGOs, combined with environmental science.

I have committed to participate in Climate Justice Fast, an international hunger strike for climate justice. From today and until we meet again in Copenhagen, I will be eating nothing and drinking only water.

The end date of the fast is still open. When I break the fast depends on what happens in the climate negotiations and in the world. The only thing I can guarantee is that I will end the fast if our demands are met.

Climate change is the defining issue for my generation. Previous generations did not understand the problem, and for future generations it will be too late to do something about it. It is up to us.

I’m undertaking this fast out of love. Love for life, for our beautiful planet with all its species and future generations. There’s nothing more important I can do in my life than to contribute in the strongest possible way, with full devotion, to set an end to climate change and injustice and be part of the movement that will lead us to a sustainable future.

I’m showing how much I care. How much I’m willing to risk, how much I’m prepared to offer. How deeply devoted I am to this cause. I hope that it will inspire others and help the necessary shift to happen.

I love life and health, but I’m willing to risk it to secure the survival of others. Food is good, chewing is fun and I will miss jumping around full of energy. It will not be easy to abstain from something as essential as food.

Still, my personal sacrifice is nothing compared to the suffering of the hundreds of thousands of people who already die from climate change each year, and the many millions of people who would be suffering in the years to come if we would fail to solve climate change. Voluntarily abstaining from food is not easy, but it’s possible. Solving climate change is also not an easy task, but it’s possible, and we will.

This is the right thing to do at the right time. Turn to essentials, turn to emotions. The pure, the true, the real. Touch hearts. Push the limits, move on to the next level.

I will enjoy this peaceful time to reflect while others are busy. We will focus on the big picture while COP15 gets lost and stuck in a thousand details.

Now is the time to mobilise the movement for change.

We call on all people to get involved in the climate movement. We know the science. Educate yourself. Think about what’s most important? Change your mindset. Your goal in life can’t be a comfortable life where you consume everything you want. Widen your perspective. Think of the invisible consequences behind your actions. Challenge yourself.

No specific person is to blame. There’s no single enemy responsible for causing the problem. Yet climate change is happening, and it’s deeply unjust and immoral. With knowledge comes responsibility. We ask every single person on this planet to seek for solutions within themselves, and find the courage to act with global consciousness.

Hunger striking is a positive act of humble nonviolence that we are undertaking as extremely concerned citizens. Judging from the support we are getting, a lot of people feel the same way.

We’re not only in a climate crisis, but also a democracy crisis. We must highlight the failure of our democracies to reflect the best interests and opinions of their population.

Many species throughout history have polluted, consumed or overpopulated themselves into extinction. But if we as humanity fail to solve the climate crisis, we may well become the first species who has done so in full knowledge and awareness of its own actions. I believe in humanity, we can’t be that stupid.

Climate change is an opportunity to redefine our common values, and to create the just and sustainable world that most people everywhere want. “The world is ready for change”. This is the start of the sustainability era”.

To move into that era, we have to do all what we can, right now, when there’s still the smallest amount of time left. We must be able to look back and know that we did all what we could do. Maybe I’ll have children one day, and I must be able to look them in the eye.

(Awesome girls and climate campaigners Anna Kennan and Sara Svensson began a hunger strike urging world leaders to take serious and urgent action to solve the climate crisis and demanding an ambitious, fair and LEGALLY binding climate treaty at Copenhagen Climate Summit. This inspiring speech was delivered by Sara on November 6 at the press conference in Barcelona during UNFCCC Barcelona Climate Change Talks 2009. Please support them- whatever you can. You can find more at http://www.climatejusticefast.com)

By:Rieman Rudra

In the male-dominated society of Bangladesh, a female has three appearances: a daughter, a wife and a mother. She is brought up caged in religious and social barriers and garlanded with various do’s and do-not (rules and regulations). This system has passed through thousands of years, and today even though women’s rights are clearly stated in Bangladesh’s constitution; women are still being part of the deprived part of Bangladesh’s society.

A tale from Sheikhati village of the Narail district……

A man brutally beating his wife!

On my last trip to my village, I came across an 18-year old boy named Shumon. Currently, he neither studies nor works, but last year he married a teenage girl. The girl’s father is a poor village farmer and had to sell his land to give a sum of money as part of the dowry to Shumon’s family. Shumon’s family consists of Shumon and his parents. Throughout the day the he and his mother dominated the life of the under-aged wife. She had to do all the house chores (including washing, cooking, etc), take care of her husband and mother-in-law. Close-by villagers say she was a good wife. However, Shumon’s mother beat her, kicked her, or pulled the tuft of her hairs whenever she was little late in finishing her work or talking to outsiders or resting; Shumon was also involved in these activities. On one occasion, Shumon grabbed a thick piece of wood and struck her relentless with it till he and his mother was satisfied. The beaten girl left their house soon and got a divorce.

In this devastating marriage, Shumon and his family lost nothing. Shumon is now excited to marry a second time. The girl? Her father no longer possesses his land and would anyone ever want to marry a divorced girl in rural Bangladesh? This is just one simple story of last year but there are more tragic stories which are yet to be unveiled.

Violence in the family is no longer a myth but a reality. It seems to be an endemic phenomenon. People who abuse their women exist in all ethnic, geographic, religious, educational, occupational and socio-economic groups. This cuts across all socio-economic barriers but the kind of violence and the degree of violence may vary according to the socio-economic and cultural beliefs of the family and the community. Acid throwing and burning is one type of violence that is increasing in Bangladesh; family members do it for family quarrel over non-payment of dowry or disobedience, disrespect shown to husband or other in-laws in Bangladesh. Often these are reported as accident or suicide. Stringent laws have been enacted in Bangladesh but so far no noticeable change has occurred.

Violence against women is not just an assault against an individual but against woman’s personality, mental or physical integrity or even freedom of movement on account of their gender. It is any act of gender based violence that results or is likely to result in physical, sexual, psychological harm or suffering to women including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life. This is clearly based on the unequal power relations between men and women who are built upon the patriarchal social structure; constructed, reinforced and perpetuated by socio-political institutions, put in place by men.