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Home > IUSSP Activity Reports > Activity Report 2002
During 2002, the IUSSP organized a major Regional Population Conference in Southeast Asia and held four scientific seminars organized by its Scientific Committees and Working Groups. The IUSSP Council approved a number of new scientific panels that will address critical intersections between population trends and other dimensions, including urbanization, poverty, conflict and violence, human rights and aging in developing countries. In addition, the IUSSP continued to sponsor the activities of the Population-Environment Research Network (PERN) and to strengthen its global outreach by co-sponsoring the work of the Global Science Panel. The IUSSP also took several steps to expand its dissemination of scientifically sound population information at international intergovernmental meetings and conferences. Background papers or statements were presented at the United Nations Commission on Population and Development, the Fifth Asia-Pacific Population Conference, and the World Summit on Sustainable Development. The IUSSP expanded its collaboration with other scientific organizations by organizing special sessions and participating in a number of scientific and policy meetings.
With support from the UNFPA, the IUSSP launched a program in 2002 to further understanding of the interrelations between poverty and population dynamics and to encourage all of its scientific groups to direct attention to this issue. As part of that program, a Scientific Panel on Population and Poverty was initiated that will organize its first seminar in November 2003 in Mexico City. The meeting topic is to consider the role of social programs--broadly defined to include health, family planning, schooling and related programs--in mediating the relationship between poverty and demographic variables. Papers prepared for this seminar will investigate whether social programs reduce socio-economic disparities in outcomes such as unwanted pregnancy and child survival, as well as the demographic impact of programs designed for other purposes, such as programs intended to increase school attendance. The IUSSP intends to support other scientific activities on population and poverty, mindful of the centrality of poverty reduction in the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations.
Professor Ronald Freedman, professor emeritus, University of Michigan, was selected to receive the IUSSP's twelfth Laureate Award. To be eligible for the Laureate Award, candidates must have been a member for at least 20 years and be nominated by at least five members. Outstanding contributions to the advancement of the population sciences and distinguished service rendered to the IUSSP and the profession are taken into consideration. Professor Freedman was honored at a special session held at the 2002 Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America. In his presentation of the Award, Jacques Vallin, IUSSP President, celebrated Professor Freedman's career and achievements in the study of fertility and family planning and their socio-psychological determinants (http://www.iussp.org/Awards-Grants/12-freedman.php).
Year 2002 was the second full year of operation for the IUSSP at its Paris headquarters. In late 2000, the IUSSP moved from Liege, Belgium, to Paris, France, and set up offices at the Institut national d'études demographiques (INED). A dynamic Secretariat of four individuals manages IUSSP membership services, fundraising efforts, outreach efforts, publications, and coordination of scientific groups. In addition to organizing the South-East Asian Regional Population Conference, the Secretariat began planning in 2002 for the IUSSP General Assembly and Conference to be held in Tours, France in July 2003. In collaboration with the French National Organizing Committee, the Secretariat organized the first meeting of the International Organizing Committee in late 2002.
The IUSSP's main goal is to "foster relations between persons engaged in the study of demography in all countries of the world, and stimulate interest in demographic matters among governments, national and international organisations, scientific bodies and the general public." To achieve this goal, the IUSSP carried out and sponsored a number of scientific activities in 2002. The largest event was the Regional Population Conference on South-East Asia's Population in a Changing Asian Context: Policy Implications which was held from 9 to 13 June 2002 in Bangkok, Thailand. In addition to the Regional Conference, the Committees and Working Groups of the IUSSP held four scientific meetings or seminars over the course of 2002. The Seminar on New Forms of Urbanisation, organized by the Working Group on Urbanization, was held at the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Study and Conference Center in Bellagio, Italy, from 11 to 14 March 2002. The Seminar on Ethnicity and Population Processes organized by the Committee on Historical Demography took place in Pasadena, California, from 13 to 14 May 2002. The Seminar on Macro-Meso-Micro Social Influences in Health: Changing Patterns of Morbidity, organized by the Committee on Anthropological Demography, took place in Yaoundé, Cameroon, from 5 to 8 June 2002. The Seminar on Determinants of Diverging Trends in Mortality of the Committee on Emerging Health Threats was held in Rostock, Germany, from 19 to 21 June 2002.
Through participation in the activities of the Global Science Panel (GSP), a high-level international panel of 35 population and environment experts co-chaired by Nafis Sadik and Maurice Kendall, the IUSSP contributed to raise awareness about the importance of population issues for sustainable development. The science policy statement on Population in Sustainable Development was presented officially by IUSSP and IIASA representatives during PREPCOM III of the World Summit on Sustainable Development in April 2002 and members of the Global Science Panel attended the Summit itself to reinforce the message about the importance of population for sustainable development. The draft GSP statement was reviewed and critiqued by IUSSP members in two cyber seminars sponsored by PERN.
An official statement by IUSSP was delivered at the annual meeting of the Commission on Population and Development of the United Nations in April 2002, whose special topic was Reproductive Rights and Reproductive Health. The statement can be read at: http://www.iussp.org/cpd02.pdf.
More detailed information on each of these activities if provided below.
The Regional Conference on South-East Asia's Population in a Changing Asian Context: Policy Implications
Bangkok, Thailand
9-13 June 2002
This IUSSP Regional Conference, the first IUSSP Conference to be held in Southeast Asia, was jointly organised by the IUSSP and the College of Population Studies of Chulalongkorn University, Thailand, representing the Asian MetaCentre for Population and Sustainable Development Analysis based in Singapore. Dr. Vipan Prachuabmoh served as the Conference Coordinator for the College of Population Studies and received excellent backup support from Dr. Napaporn Chayovan and other members of the Thai National Organizing Committee. The Conference was held from 9 to 13 June 2003 in Siam City Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand. The Conference had 29 regular sessions, two plenary sessions devoted to general debates about key population issues, a special poster session, and a special half-day session on population ageing. The opening ceremony was presided over by Her Royal Highness Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand. The IUSSP President, Jacques Vallin, made opening and closing statements. Papers and speeches made at the Conference are available for consultation at http://www.iussp.org/Bangkok2002/bangkok_papers.php. More than 350 persons attended the Conference, drawn from the ranks of population scientists, development experts, policy makers, and programme managers throughout the region and the world. Among registered participants, 43 per cent were from Southeast Asia, 25 per cent from the rest of Asia and the remaining 32 per cent form all other world regions.
The Conference provided a unique forum for participants to discuss the rapidly changing population dynamics of Southeast Asia in relation to those of the continent and the world. It allowed participants to debate important population and development issues and their implications for operational and policy strategies. Participants had the opportunity of assessing lessons learned from the experience of Southeast Asia and to consider their relevance for other parts of Asia. The Conference also fostered networking and encouraged greater collaboration among population researchers in general and among population research centers in the region in particular. Sessions and debates at the meeting provided data and information for a background policy report prepared for the Fifth Asia and Pacific Population Conference organized by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) that was held in Bangkok, Thailand, in December 2002. The Conference provided an excellent opportunity for participants to network with international colleagues.
The Conference amply fulfilled the following goals:
The two plenary debate sessions encouraged discussion of controversial population policy questions. The questions selected for debate and the panels invited to introduce the issues were:
The debate on borders within Asia stimulated active discussion from the audience. One speaker spoke in favour of open borders; one speaker spoke against open borders; and a third speaker took an intermediate position, arguing that while some conditions might warrant the opening of borders by countries, most countries in Southeast Asia would find it necessary to impose restrictions. That position gathered the most support from the audience. The panel debate on globalisation was also highly successful. Participants were asked to defend an opinion on whether globalisation had increased or reduced poverty. Various speakers argued that, while globalisation had undoubtedly brought some gains to the region, it had also left behind significant sectors of the population and efforts had to be made to raise the standard of living of those sectors. A report on this lively debate was prepared by Richard Leete and was published in a special issue of Southeast Asian Studies by the East-West Center, Hawaii.
A special half-day session was organised by Dr. Mohammed Nizamuddin of UNFPA on the subject "Implementation of the Plan of Action of the Second World Assembly on Ageing for Countries in Asia", with funding from the UNFPA Asia Division. At this session, panels of experts discussed the social and economic implications of rapid population ageing in Asia and developed a useful regional agenda for operational research and training priorities.
The IUSSP Conference also facilitated several other complementary events, including a two-day workshop held on 13-14 June on "Health Consequences of Population Changes in Asia" and attended by 91 participants from all over the world. Most of those participants had also attended the IUSSP Regional Conference. Discussion at the workshop focused on urbanization and migration as the main population drivers of health outcomes in Asia. The Asian MetaCentre for Population and Sustainable Development Analysis organized the workshop. It was followed by a closed-door session on Population Growth and Changing Composition (including ageing) chaired by Professor Ebrahim Shah (UK). Prior to the Regional Conference, CICRED held a meeting of its Board and other CICRED members present at the Conference.
Noting that the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) was organizing the Fifth Asia-Pacific Population Conference (APPC) to be held in Bangkok from 11 to 17 December 2002 and that government representatives attending that conference would focus particularly on the theme of Population and Poverty in Asia and the Pacific, the International Organizing Committee of the IUSSP Regional Conference decided to prepare a policy paper summarizing the key findings of the IUSSP Regional Conference so that it could be submitted as a background paper to the Fifth Asia-Pacific Population Conference. The paper synthesizes the key conclusions and policy implications derived from the summaries of scientific sessions prepared by session and is available at <"a href=http://www.iussp.org/Bangkok2002/5APPC.pdf"> http://www.iussp.org/Bangkok2002/5APPC.pdf. In preparing those summaries, organizers were asked to focus on the identification of overall population and development dynamics, the links between population and poverty, policy implications, and anticipated future trends in the context of globalisation. The policy paper has been posted on the IUSSP website. Dr. Vipan Prachuabmoh represented the IUSSP at the ESCAP meeting and presented the policy paper. In addition, copies of the policy paper were circulated to participants in the Regional Population Conference.
Funding for the IUSSP Regional Conference was obtained from IUSSP unrestricted funds provided by the Belgian, Dutch, French, and Norwegian governments and supplemented by financial support from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the Rockefeller Foundation, the Wellcome Trust (through the Asia Metacenter), IIASA and the World Health Organization (WHO). In addition, most participants received full or partial travel support from their own institutions.
Seminar on New Forms of Urbanisation and other Activities of the Working Group on Urbanisation
Bellagio, Italy
11-14 March 2002
The Working Group on Urbanization, chaired by Tony Champion of the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, organized a Seminar on New Forms of Urbanisation: Conceptualising and Measuring Human Settlement in the Twenty-first Century. The Seminar was held at the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Study and Conference Centre in Bellagio, Italy, from 11 to 14 March 2002. Participants discussed 19 pre-circulated papers prepared by leading researchers and practitioners in the conceptualisation and measurement of urbanization. The Seminar comprised 12 sessions, including two final sessions devoted to a discussion with invited discussants and the consideration of conclusions and recommendations.
The primary goals of the Seminar were: (a) to review existing methods of collecting and disseminating population data on human settlements; (b) to examine ways of conceptualising the new and evolving forms of population settlement; and (c) to explore the possibilities for operationalising new concepts, including by the use of new technologies of data collection and processing. The conclusions of the Seminar underscored the revolutionary importance of the process of urbanization, which represented one of the major transformations of population settlement patterns occurring over the history of humanity. Yet, the discussion at the Seminar confirmed the view that the data and methods most commonly used to measure the dynamics of urbanization were inadequate to reflect the complex changes that the process of urbanization entailed. The report of the Seminar, including its conclusions and recommendations, are available at http://www.iussp.org/Activities/wgc-urb/urb-rep02.php. The papers presented at the Seminar are also available at http://www.iussp.org/members/restricted/publications/Bellagio02/bellagio02-list.php. Revised and edited versions of the papers, together with the Seminar's report, will be published in book form by Ashgate Press in 2003.
To ensure that the conclusions and recommendations of the IUSSP Seminar would have an impact on the way statistics on urbanization are collected and disseminated, Prof. Champion contacted the United Nations Statistics Division and the Population Division to inform them of the results of the Seminar. In response, the United Nations Statistics Division organized a Meeting to Review Statistical Standards and National Data Sets for the Study of Urban and Rural Areas, which was held in New York from 23 to 24 October 2002. Prof. Champion attended the meeting as representative of IUSSP and presented officially the conclusions and recommendations of the IUSSP Seminar to United Nations staff. This meeting provided an opportunity to highlight the relevance of IUSSP scientific activities and also to exchange views between the research community and those in charge of providing guidelines on data collection and processing to national statistical offices. All parties involved thought the exchange useful and promised to maintain collaboration in the future.
The work of the Working Group on Urbanization benefited from financial support from the Mellon Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation, including the use of the Bellagio Conference Centre.
Seminar on Ethnicity and Population Processes
Pasadena, California
13-4 May 2002
The Committee on Historical Demography, chaired by Tommy Bengtsson of Sweden, organized a Seminar on Ethnicity and Population Processes that was held in Pasadena, California, from 13 to 14 May 2002. The organizers of the scientific programme for the Seminar were James Lee (California Institute of Technology, USA) and Cormac O´Grada (University College Dublin, Ireland). The meeting had 19 participants. A full report on the meeting has not yet been submitted to IUSSP.
Seminar on Macro-Meso-Micro Social Influences in Health: Changing Patterns of Morbidity
Yaoundé, Cameroon
5-8 June 2002
The Committee on Anthropological Demography, chaired by Anthony Carter of the Univerity of Rochester, organized a Seminar on Macro-Meso-Micro Social Influences in Health: Changing Patterns of Morbidity in collaboration with the Institut de Formation et de Recherche Démographiques (IFORD) of the University of Yaoundé II and the Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences of the University of Yaoundé I. The Seminar took place in Yaoundé, Cameroon, from 5 to 8 June 2002. The organizers of the scientific programme of the Seminar were Barthélémy Kuate-Defo (University of Montral, Canada) and Stephen Kunitz (University of Rochester, USA).
The Seminar's main goal was to foster the application of qualitative methodologies to the multi-level (macro-meso-micro) analysis of the effects of globalisation, financial crises and economic restructuring on inequalities in morbidity and mortality risks among individuals, families and communities. Although the consequences of globalisation, economic crises and structural adjustment had been the subject of intense debate, the organizers of the Seminar considered that the evidence regarding their impact on health services, health status, and health care utilisation remained uncertain. The Seminar aimed at assessing whether the global economic changes taking place were likely to affect long-term trends in health and morbidity in affected populations by focusing attention on qualitative case studies of the ways in which macro-meso-micro social changes might influence changes in health status, morbidity, mortality, and health-seeking behaviour.
The International Social Science Council and UNFPA provided financial support for this Seminar.
Seminar on the Determinants of Diverging Trends in Mortality
Rostock, Germany
19-21 June 2002
The Committee on Emerging Health Threats, chaired by Vladimir Shkolnikov of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, organized a Seminar on the Determinants of Diverging Trends in Mortality held in Rostock, Germany, from 19 to 21 June 2002. The organizers of the Seminar noted that the optimistic view that health and longevity in the developing world would improve continuously until they matched the levels common in more developed countries could no longer be claimed with certainty. The number of populations suffering long-term stagnation or deterioration of health conditions and even outright increases in mortality levels is increasing. Socio-economic factors, such as the effects of economic restructuring in Eastern and Central European countries, as well as the re-emergence of infectious diseases as major causes of death in developing countries, were at the root of the reversals noted. The Seminar's goal was to understand better why continued progress in improving health and reducing mortality was not an inevitable consequence of general development and could no longer be expected to occur on its own.
The 31 papers presented at the Seminar, documented unfavourable health developments in various regions of the world and analysed the increasing socio-economic differentials and regional disparities in mortality. Attention was also given to mortality differentials in old age, the impact of health policies and the interrelations between changes in environmental factors and population health. The meeting brought together demographers, epidemiologists, sociologists, experts in public health, and representatives of national agencies and international organizations from more than 18 countries in different regions of the world. A selected subset of the papers presented at the Seminar would be published as a special issue of Demographic Research, the electronic journal of the Max Plank Institute for Demographic Research at http://www.demogr.mpg.de/.
The Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research provided generous financial and administrative support for this meeting.
The Global Science Panel on Population and the Environment consists of 35 distinguished scientists from different disciplines and regions, under the patronage of Mr. Maurice Strong and Dr. Nafis Sadik. The Panel was organised by the Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), the IUSSP and the United Nations University (UNU). The Panel's work was coordinated by Wolfgang Lutz and Mahendra Shah of IIASA.
The Panel's mission was to prepare a comprehensive scientific assessment of the role of population in sustainable development strategies to serve as input for the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) held in Johannesburg, South Africa, from August 26 to 4 September 2002. To that effect, the Panel drafted a science policy statement on population and sustainable development that was discussed extensively during two cyber-seminars held in October-November 2001 and March 2002. The cyber-seminars were conducted by the Population-Environment Research Network (PERN) which is also an activity sponsored by IUSSP. These cyber-seminars elicited hundreds of comments and suggestions from persons from all over the world and from varied disciplinary backgrounds. The points raised during the cyber-seminars were an important input to the last meeting of the Global Science Panel, held at the IIASA Conference Center in Laxenburg, Austria, from 21 to 23 March 2002. During that meeting, the final version of the science-policy statement on "Population in Sustainable Development" was discussed. ( http://www.iiasa.ac.at/gsp/?sb=18).
Mr. Lutz and Mr. Shah, representing the Global Science Panel, presented the science-policy statement at the Third Preparatory Committee meeting (PREPCOM III) for the WSSD held in New York from 25 March to 5 April 2002. Mr. Shah conducted special seminars and presentations as the PREPCOM IV held in Bali, Indonesia, from 27 May to 5 April 2002. Lastly, Mr. Shah and members of the Global Science Panel attended the Johannesburg Summit itself and stressed the message that development and environment issues cannot be treated without taking population issues into consideration. Although these activities were successful in getting the message out, the results of the Johannesburg Summit were disappointing because governments decided to leave population out of the negotiating process.
Activities of the Global Science Panel were supported with funding from IIASA, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the United Nations Population Fund, the United Nations University and the Austrian Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Funded by the MacArthur Foundation, the Population and Environment Research Network (PERN, http://www.populationenvironmentresearch.org/) is an academic web-based information source on current population and environment research worldwide. The network aims to stimulate greater exchange of ideas and the improvement of methods and approaches to study the population-environment nexus. To this effect, it maintains and updates online a searchable database of population and environment literature and conducts occasional cyber-seminars on current research topics. The target audience includes institutions and individual researchers around the world from a variety of disciplines, including demography, ecology, geography, anthropology, biology, history, political science, and environmental studies. The project is jointly sponsored by the IUSSP and the International Human Dimensions of Global Change Programme (IHDP).
During 2002, PERN conducted two cyber-seminars. The first focused on the science-policy statement on "Population in Sustainable Development" prepared by the Global Science Panel on Population and Environment (see above). The second took place in September 2002 and discussed the issue "Should borders be open?" The question was addressed in terms of the interactions between international migration and the environment. Sara Curran prepared an overview paper that identified possible interactions between migration and the environment and that provided a basis to launch the discussion. Contributions to this cyber-seminar were of high quality but indicated that the debate had been framed from too narrow a perspective.
The IUSSP collaborates with a wide number of other institutions in order to build international networks between the population community and disseminate knowledge. The IUSSP is a member of UNESCO's International Social Science Council (ISSC). The IUSSP appointed Jacques Veron as its representative to the ISSC General Assembly held in Vienna, Austria in December 2002 and organised a special session at the ISSC General Conference which was also held in Austria just before the General Assembly. The Union for African Population Studies (UAPS) invited the IUSSP to serve on the International Organising Committee for the IV African Population Conference to be held in December 2003 in Tunis and to organise a session on "Mortality, health transition and poverty" at that Conference. The International Statistical Institute invited the IUSSP to organise a session on population projections for its 2003 General Conference in Berlin.
Preparations for the 2005 IUSSP General Conference took off in 2002. At its first meeting in March 2002, the current IUSSP Council was briefed by the Chair of the French National Organizing Committee (NOC), Ms. Catherine Rollet, regarding the local organization of the Conference. In May 2002, the Bureau of the IUSSP met with the Bureau of the NOC to discuss advances made in the selection of the Conference Site and to provide information about the planning requirements for the Conference. After careful evaluation and analysis of the possible sites for the Conference, the NOC decided to hold it in Tours, France, in July 2005. The IUSSP Bureau and members of the NOC made an official visit to the site on 11-12 November 2002 and found it met all the requirements of the Conference.
The first meeting of the International Organizing Committee (IOC) for the Conference took place on 15-16 November 2002. The main part of the meeting was devoted to framing the scientific programme for the Conference. Topics for over 100 regular sessions were proposed and potential organisers identified. In addition, the meeting provided an opportunity to discuss the strategy and logistics involved in organizing the General Conference. A schedule for future activities was developed and agreed to. The first activity, namely the sending of invitation to organizers of sessions, was completed by December 2002 under the direction of the Chair of the Committee on Scientific Activities, Prof. Peter McDonald of Australian National University.
The Council launched several new efforts in 2002 in order to strengthen its membership services and its reputation as the leading international association for scholars and policymakers interested in global population matters. As part of this initiative, the Council set up a Membership Committee with the charge of increasing the membership by one hundred individuals annually during the next four years. Council also set up a Scientific Activities Committee and gave it the mandate of soliciting suggestions from the membership for new scientific activities. A mailing was sent out to the membership and over a hundred proposals and responses received. Another Council Committee was set up to make recommendations regarding what the IUSSP could do to provide training opportunities for developing country scholars and young demographers. An evaluation was also carried out in 2002 of the IUSSP website and the process of upgrading the website launched.
Council approved the establishment of the following scientific committees, working groups and panels:
In addition, nine other scientific groups are continuing their work under IUSSP auspices:
Several of these scientific groups are planning activities for 2003. The first seminar of the new IUSSP Committee on Reproductive Health, to be held in Gaborone, Botswana, from 13-17 July 2003, aims to take stock of the condom in the era of HIV/AIDS. The seminar will be based around four themes: condom use for pregnancy prevention, condom use for disease prevention, removing barriers to condom use, and intervention strategies or promoting condom use for disease prevention. There will also be a session devoted to case studies from Southern and Eastern Africa, with a special focus on Botswana. This IUSSP meeting is being co-sponsored by the University of Botswana, the World Health Organization, the UNFPA, and Cornell University.
The Committee on Longevity is organising a seminar entitled "Prospects for survival, health and living conditions in old age: policy implications," that is tentatively scheduled to be held in New York in October. In addition to addressing statistical issues of how to forecast health and longevity, topics will include prospects of further decline in mortality and morbidity due to cardiovascular diseases and cancer, possibilities that future progress in the biology of ageing will delay senescent processes, emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases [including AIDS] in the future, and potential effects of environmental and social factors on future survival. In collaboration with the Age Structure Committee, the Committee on Longevity is organising a special Conference in Beijing in October on the demographic window. The Beijing Conference will be funded by the Asian Meta Center and other institutions and bring together scientists and policymakers.
The Scientific Panel on Population and Poverty is organising a Seminar on Poverty, Programs and Demographic Outcomes to be held 21-22 November 2003 in Mexico City in collaboration with Universidad Iberoamericana. The theme of this seminar is the impact of social programs--broadly defined to include health, family planning, schooling and other programs--on demographic outcomes, as mediated by poverty or factors underlying poverty. A major focus is the differential impacts of social programs on demographic outcomes for the poor and non-poor. Another issue to be considered is the impact of social programs on the distribution of key demographic outcomes.
Several other groups are at early stages of planning. For instance, the Working Group on the Demography of Conflict and Violence under the leadership of Helge Brunborg, Statistics Norway, is organising a Seminar to assess the state-of-the-art in this field. The Committee on Historical Demography is planning a Seminar for December 2003. The Population and Environment Research Network will sponsor a cyber seminar in April on population and deforestation in tropical regions. The Emerging Health Threats Committee will hold a meeting in Burkina Faso in late 2003 or early 2004 to examine "HIV, the Resurgent Infections and Population Change in Africa." Several scientific groups will hold small planning meetings in 2003.
Other scientific groups are focusing on preparation of book manuscripts or policy papers based on their work. The most recent book released in the International Studies in Demography Series that the IUSSP sponsors with Oxford University Press is Famine Demography - Perspectives from the Past and Present, edited by Tim Dyson and Cormac O'Grada, 2002.
The Union has an elected Council of twelve members that sets program directions and approves the financial report. During 2002 the IUSSP Council met twice, first on 7-9 March 2002 and second on 13-14 November 2002. At those meetings, the Council reviewed the 2002 and 2003 planning budget. Council also reviewed and approved the IUSSP scientific program for the next four years. Council decisions are recorded in minutes that are approved by Council. The Executive Committee, which includes the President, Vice President and Secretary-General and Treasurer guide the work of the Union between Council meetings and consult regularly with Council on decisions requiring Council approval. The Secretary General and Treasurer provides oversight of the Union's Paris Secretariat and financial operations.
The 2002 IUSSP accounts were prepared by the Union's accounting firm, ARICE, and audited by Ernst and Young. In 2002 the Union received income of Euro 946,549 of which Euro 808,632 was income from grants; Euro 126,428 was income from membership, conference registration fees, royalties and interest; and Euro 11,489 was income from miscellaneous sources. Included in the membership income is Euro 657 in contributions to the Development Fund started by the Union in 2002 to subsidise developing country memberships and travel.
Expenditures for operations in 2002 totalled Euro 835,792 of which Euro 430,171 was spent on scientific activities. Provisions were made in 2002 for future expenses that would be incurred were the Union to close its Paris operations. In addition, the Union set aside Euro 109,018 toward the cost of its General Conference that will be held in 2005. Reserves for designated projects and general activities totalled Euro 493,217 at the end of 2002. The goal of Council is to establish a level of reserves comparable to the one that the Union had before it moved its headquarters from Belgium to France in order to ensure the continued sound operations of the Union in the years ahead. In 2003 the Union expects to wind up its accounts in Belgium and to transfer its remaining assets to France. The Union incurred Euro 84,131 in foreign exchange costs and Euro 16,097 in foreign exchange profits. A late penalty fee of Euro 1,190 was levied against the Union.
The Union received generous support from a number of governments, foundations and other agencies in 2002. That group includes the Governments of Belgium, France, Holland and Norway, the UNFPA, the International Social Science Council (UNESCO), the Mac Arthur Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA). In addition, the Union's membership increased to 1900 members in 2002 and a membership goal of 2000 members has been set for 2003.
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