With the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in 1994, the World Conference on Women in 1995 and the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000, nations of the world have assumed responsibilities for the implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action (PoA), Beijing Declaration and Programme of Action, and the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). These international conferences provide a focus and a motivation for social development. In October 2007, the 62nd General Assembly of UN officially resolved to “achieve, by 2015, universal access to reproductive health” as a formal part of the MDGs, and set forth four indicators for monitoring progress – contraceptive prevalence rate, adolescent birth rate, antenatal care coverage, and the measure of unmet need for family planning. Most countries share a common understanding that population is a key development issue, and regard in the reduction of high fertility as a central part of the effort to alleviate poverty and attain sustainable development. Understanding population issues from a wider perspective and adopting integrated measures to provide reproductive and sexual health services for all are gradually becoming demanded by citizens and accepted by cultures across the globe.

In the past 15 years, governments have made gallant efforts to achieve harmonious development between population, resources and environment; yet today many developing countries still lag behind on the indicators showing the path to the meeting the ICPD PoA and the MDGs by 2015.

(1) Population of developing countries continues to increase. Statistics from UNFPA's State of World Population 2007 and United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP) Human Development Report 2007/2008 show that Total Fertility Rate (TFR) of developing countries has declined from 6.2 in the early 1950s to 2.9 at the beginning of this century; while in some regions a relatively higher population increase rate and TFR. The world's population, currently 6.6 billion, is still projected to increase by 60 to 70 million annually. Almost all of that population increase happens in developing countries. The resultant huge population will give rise to tremendous challenges to global food supply, making unprecedented calls on natural resources and energy.

(2) The world has achieved some progress in poverty reduction, but slowly. Limited economic development achievements have been more than offset by large increases of population in some of the poorest countries. According to data from UN MDGs Report 2007, the population living on less than one US dollar per day has declined from 1.25 billion in 1990 to 980 million in 2004. In all developing countries, the proportion of people living in absolute poverty has merely declined from 33 percent in 1990 to 27 percent in 2005, and in South Asia, from 53 percent in 1990 slowly to 46 percent in 2005. After 15 years of efforts still nearly half the children in developing countries lack food and basic medicines. Under these conditions more children may survive, but still too few are allowed to thrive in ways that assure the welfare of the next generation.

(3) Maternal mortality and HIV infection rates remain high in many regions, and the existing technical measures have failed to reach many communities and meet mothers' basic medical, nutritional and welfare needs. Lack of quality medical care and obstetrical facilities, means the risk of maternal death over a woman's lifetime is as high as 1 death: 16 women in Sub-Saharan Africa, whereas the figure is 1:3800 in developed countries, indicating a relative risk of more than 200 times. The starting point for maternal health care is universal access to reproductive and sexual health care, including family planning. However, in 2005 only 632 million women regularly received contraceptive services, leaving unmet the needs of 201 million women

(4) The total contributions to reproductive and sexual health services from the international community is so limited that it has become an inhibiting factor for international efforts to address the needs of developing nations. Many developing country governments are unable to take effective direct intervention to reduce rapid population increase due to cultural or religious considerations. They require assistance to train policy-makers, medical personnel, and community leaders, and they need financial assistance to supply the contraceptives, medical supplies and logistic support to serve poor, sometimes isolated groups. The international community's decreasing attention to this issue has been seen in the reduction of international assistance in real terms and at times an overt antagonism to population and development. This has become a serious bottleneck for any meaningful solution to population and reproductive health issues afflicting us all.

The critical issue of excessive consumption of resources by a rapidly expanding global population has not received adequate policy support and advocacy from governments over the past 10 years. A UN report points out that, "Population increase and resources consumption by the huge population make the global resources supply even tighter. Global warming, desertification, scarce fresh water and continuous reduction of arable land make it more difficult for poverty alleviation and realization of gender equality." For many years it seemed that some rich nations read this as a call to defend and expand their affluence by resisting the warnings of science, while for poor nations these environmental challenges push any dream of affluence even further away. In both cases the result was a failure to act in the interests of the people.

The 2004 World Health Conference defined 5 new strategies to accelerate the realization of the reproductive health goal: strengthen the capacity of health agencies, improve information collection, mobilize political forces, increase supporting legislation, and strengthen supervision, assessment and accountability. These are strategies that require commitment, coordination and most of all resources. They are strategies that are as relevant to all developed countries as they are to the poorest developing country, and that mutual relevance means that all nations have something to gain from the effort to promote reproductive and sexual health and something valuable to give to others. All governments must attach more attention to population issues and attainment of the MDGs, for their own good and as part as the global effort to save the world from environmental and social decline. They should embrace new and strong strategies and partnerships with a view to comprehensive solutions to population issues and attainment of MDGs.

The 5th Asia Pacific Conference on Reproductive and Sexual Health and Rights (APCRSHR) will be held from 18 to 20 October 2009 in Beijing, China, organized by China Family Planning Association (CFPA), International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), IPPF East & South East Asia , Oceania Region (ESEAOR), China Population Association (CPA), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Partners in Population and Development (PPD), Sociology of Women and Gender Research Association of Chinese Association of Sociology (SWGRA, CAS) and National Population and Family Planning Commission of China (NPFPC). The Conference will provide a common platform for all stakeholders to exchange experience and discuss strategies in the reproductive health fields in Asian Pacific countries, further arouse the attention from the international community to reproductive health issues, and facilitate the attainment of MDGs in the Asia and Pacific Region on schedule.