Third World fears ignored, say Southern groups by Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS, Apr 18 (IPS) - A number of Southern groups Monday accused the United Nations of jettisoning the Third World cause in talks to draw up a global population and development plan. Non-governmental organisations (NGOs), mostly from Asia, Africa, and Latin America, object to a chapter which addresses environmentally sensible development in the draft Programme of Action to be adopted at the September International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo. "We reject the assumption that sustainable development will be achieved by controlling population growth rates in the South," said Evelyne Hong of the Southern NGO Development Forum. The chapter, put together by the Conference Secretariat, deals with the relationships among population, sustained economic growth, and sustainable development. "It is the most crucial chapter as far as the Third World is concerned. And yet our position has been left entirely out of the chapter -- as are the positions of the indigenous peoples," said Hong. "We are angry and we are disturbed about this." The Forum charges that the document is geared towards shifting the burden of population and development problems on to the South, especially women. It says existing inequities which have led to over-consumption and global environmental deterioration are not addressed. "For the South, this is the crucial issue that forms the heart of the sustainable debate." The Forum includes the Third World Network, the Asian Women's Commission for Human Rights, the Caribbean Policy Development Centre, the All-African Conference of Churches, and the Voluntary Health Association of India. It says the North, with 20 percent of the world population uses up to 80 percent of the global resources and is responsible for 80 percent of the pollution that causes ozone loss and global warming. Thus, the important equation is not.that "four out of every five people live in the South", but that "four out of five units of resources consumed are consumed in the North," the Forum argues. Even if the population growth went to zero in the South, only 20 percent of the environmental problem would be solved. The North would still be using up to 80 percent of global resources, it notes. The proposed Programme of Action attempts to integrate population and development objectives for the next 20 years. A three-week preparatory meeting in New York, which is to end Apr. 22, is finalising the document. The groups say that the net transfer of financial resources from the South to the North is taking place through declining terms of trade, debt servicing and the structural adjustment programmes dictated by the Bretton Woods institutions. These programmes have taken a heavy toll on health, food security, nutrition, education, housing, employment, and have led to a fall in living standards and the quality of life, the groups add. "All this results in increasing poverty, violation of the rights of people, denial of their access to resources for survival needs, marginalisation of the people of the South, and the poor in the North,"the Forum says. "As a result, addressing the social service needs are left to the poor communities themselves, especially women who are traditionally care providers," the Forum says. Back... [c] 1994, InterPress Third World News Agency (IPS) All rights reserved