News
The Population Association of America (PAA) is a nonprofit, scientific, professional organization established to promote the improvement, advancement and progress of the human race through research of problems related to human population. PAA members include demographers, sociologists, economists, public health professionals, and other individuals interested in research and education in the population field.
PAA was conceived on December 15th, 1930 at a meeting in the office of Henry Pratt Fairchild at New York University. The PAA was an offshoot of the American National Committee of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP) which had been formed in 1927 with Raymond Pearl of The Johns Hopkins University as its first President.
The 2013 PAA Annual meeting was held on April 11 “ 13 at the Sheraton New Orleans Hotel, Louisiana. The below sessions were held at the 2013 meeting;
1. Fertility, Family Planning, Sexual Behavior, and Reproductive Health
2. Marriage, Family, Households, and Unions
3. Children and Youth
4. Health and Mortality
5. Race, Ethnicity and Gender
6. Migration and Population Distribution
7. Economy, Labor Force, Education and Inequality
8. Population, Development and Environment
9. Population and Aging
10. Data and Methods
11. Applied Demography
AFIDEP’s Role:
AFIDEP presented its paper on “The Role of Political Will and Commitment in Improving Access to Family Planning in Africa.‘ The study explores the origin, architecture and role of political will in facilitating phenomenal increases in contraceptive use using case studies from five sub-Saharan African countries – Ethiopia, Malawi, Rwanda, Kenya and Tanzania. The study assesses factors that have propelled changes in the attitudes of some political leaders to champion family planning; how such political will has manifested in different contexts; and how political will impacts the policy and program environment. We use mixed policy analysis methods including desk review of policy and program documents and stakeholder interviews. The study findings demonstrate that political will is mainly changing due to increased availability of evidence that shows that family planning is central to achieving the MDGs, and that high population growth undermines efforts to transform the economies of least developing countries. Lessons from this study will help galvanize efforts to improve access to family planning services in countries where little progress is being made.
The Population Council, Kelly Hallman and AFIDEP Executive Director, Dr. Eliya Zulu Chair were discussants of Session 69: Intervention Approaches to Maternal and Reproductive Health on Thursday, April 11, 2:45- 4:15pm where the below papers were presented:
- Large Gains in Adult Life Expectancy in Rural KwaZulu-Natal and the Scale-up of HIV Treatment
- The Oportunidades Conditional Cash Transfer Program: Impacts on Pregnancy and Contraceptive Use in Young Rural Women in Mexico The Impact of Ghana’s R3M Program on the Provision of Comprehensive Abortion Care Services
- An Assessment of Janani Suraksha Yojana in Rural Uttar Pradesh, India
More information can be found on the 2013 PAA website.