CAPE TOWN, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- South Africa will host the next International Population Conference to explore possible solutions for world problems related with population growth, it was announced on Tuesday.
The conference, scheduled to take place in Cape Town from October 29 to November 4, seeks to achieve prosperity in place of poverty and wipe out illiteracy in countries where population keeps growing, said Pali Lehohla, Statistician-General at Statistics South Africa (Stats SA), which will be the primary organization hosting the conference.
The conference will explore full opportunities for the next generations of children in place of current limitations and guide how world governments duly re-look at population policies as a collective, according to Lehohla.
"We are confronted with a global, an African and a South African population crisis in as far as the population situation in many African countries continues to contribute to or detract from their chances of realizing the goals of development, not only for the current generation but also for future generations," he said.
In an attempt to address this and other challenges, the world's population scientists and government policymakers will converge, said Lehohla.
About 2,000 population scientists, policymakers, civic organization and government leaders from 131 countries will deliberate on world poverty, mortality, life expectancy, HIV and AIDS, access to education and employment, mental and sexual health, policy challenges in Africa, and migration, among many other population and development issues, according to Stats SA.
Problems related with population growth in Africa are expected to be highlighted at the conference.
Nearly 50 percent of Africans still live in poverty even though countries are becoming richer.
The growth in Africa's population in the last decade has not been accompanied by the necessary structural transformation nor has it translated into equitable human development and improved livelihoods, said Lesedi Dibakwane, spokesperson for Stats SA.
The International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP) organizes the International Population Conference once every four years in a different country, in collaboration with a host country institution.
The event is designed to address the latest population research and debate pressing global and regional population issues.
