Asian Population Association

The APA President received the 2011 United Nations Population Award

On 16 June, the 2011 Population Award was presented to Professor Mohammad Jalal Abbasi-Shavazi, the APA President, and L’Institut de Formation et de Recherche Démographiques (IFORD). Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, Asha-Rose Migiro, presented the award to the laureates during a formal ceremony at the UN. The event also featured Maged A. Abdelaziz, Egypt’s Ambassador to the United Nations and Chairman of the Award Committee and Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, who is the Committee’s Secretary. A number of diplomats, population experts and representatives of civil society, the private sector and the press attended the ceremony.

 Ms. Migiro noted the special resonance of this year’s award, as it coincides with world population reaching seven billion. “The impending population milestone has rightly triggered important discussions on managing the balance between people and resources, on fertility, population and development, and on how to help people in the least developed countries rise from poverty,” said Ms. Migiro. This year’s laureates, she added, “are helping us to address these key issues of the world’s present and future collective well-being.”

In his acceptance statement, Prof. Abbasi-Shavazi focused on the demographic transition and the youth bulge in the Middle East and North Africa, noting that today’s youth are better educated than their parents, are better linked to the rest of the world, and have higher aspirations. That is why, he concluded, it “is important to understand that old policies do not match new demands. It is the responsibility of all of us to develop an updated and “youthful” vision of the future to help guide change in our societies.” The voices of the new generation should be heard, added Prof. Abbasi-Shavazi, and population policies should be formulated within society-specific contexts and based on current needs (http://unfpa.org/public/home/news/pid/7917).  

As a demographer and a member of a number of population associations, including the Asian Population Association, the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population, and the population associations of Australia, North America, Europe and Iran, Prof. Abbasi-Shavazi stated that ‘population specialists have much to offer to improve the understanding that Governments can have of the societies that they are in charge of serving and developing’. He added that ‘those associations provide valuable platforms for both the generation and dissemination of knowledge on a wide array of population issues that touch all of us. Their work deserves support and, more importantly, deserves better dissemination among decision-makers who need to keep ahead of the curb so as to lead change instead of being overtaken by it’.