If population growth were really a problem, wouldn the worlds governments have addressed the issue much earlier?
Governments are generally more concerned with short-term problems and immediate crises than with long-term issues. The management of the AIDS crisis by many nations does not inspire confidence in the political will of governments to recognize and deal with problems. Governments are also subject to political and religious pressure. The forces against family planning services are often much more powerful than those in favour of it. Conservative forces have managed to keep many governments from putting family planning and population issues on the agenda. Population growth is still a sensitive issue internationally, and it is only recently, at the International Conference on Population and Development held in Cairo in September of 1994, that the international community has shown a high degree of consensus on the need to reduce global population growth. However, few if any nations have yet begun to meet the commitments they made in Cairo in terms of increasing expenditures on global family
