THE CAIRO CONFERENCE ON POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT - A NEW PARADIGM

The United Nations population conference held in Cairo in September 19 94 departed in several respects from its predecessors at Bucharest and Mexico City. The end of the Cold War, the election of a liberal Presi dent in the United States, and an unprecedented level of participation by nongovernmental organizations contributed to a political environme nt in which orthodox population policy was devalued. In its place, the conference outlined a ''new paradigm'' in which the reduction of glob al population growth was replaced by an individual-level model with wo men's health, rights, status, and empowerment at its heart. The author s argue that this result was primarily a consequence of an extraordina rily effective campaign undertaken by the international women's moveme nt. The article analyzes the politics of the main protagonists: the wo men's movement, the United States government, and the Holy See. The au thors conclude that there is a disjunction between the political proce ss that produced the Program of Action and the strategies that will be required to mobilize the resources and commitment for its implementat ion.