Population Consensus

Chapter 4 documents the creation after World War II of a consensus regarding human population growth that briefly united two different scientific perspectives. Natural scientists contended that the world’s human population had already exceeded the Earth’s capacity to support it and that continued growth presented an imminent threat to the natural environment and global peace. This Malthusian perspective was represented by the Population Reference Bureau. Social scientists contended that the world was in a process of demographic transition, whereby modernizing societies were breaking free of the Malthusian trap, though the transition had stalled out in developing countries and needed to be jump-started. This modernizationist perspective was represented by the Population Council. This chapter explains how the Population Reference Bureau and Population Council came together to produce and promote demographic research demonstrating that population growth posed a threat to economic development, thereby putting population control on the U.S. foreign policy agenda.

Evidence-informed planning and action in Central Asia: Learnings from the Tajikistan Adolescent Wellbeing and Health Pilot Project

To address adolescent health and wellbeing in Tajikistan, the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) and Population Council used a hybrid human-centered (HCD) and evidence-based program design to engage adolescent girls, boys, and caregivers in a guided process of defining key issues and program areas. The design informed the development of a first-of-its-kind program model for AKF and in Tajikistan: coordinated community-based groups for adolescent girls and boys, caregivers' groups, and an institutional stakeholder community of practice in Tajikistan. Design and implementation experiences established "proof of concept" as a basis to expand the approach across the country and region. The pilot generated valuable lessons and resources to inform and support both expansion and new programming.

More Than Brides Alliance—Marriage: No child’s play, Endline evaluation brief

This brief summarizes key results from the endline evaluation of the More than Brides Alliance (MTBA) project “Marriage: No Child’s Play” (MNCP) in India, Malawi, Mali, and Niger. The MTBA consists of partners Save the Children Netherlands, Simavi, Oxfam Novib, and the Population Council, along with 25 local implementing partners. The MNCP project—which took place from 2016 to 2020—aimed at being holistic and targeting pathways to child marriage on multiple levels simultaneously, treating communities as either having the full MNCP package or no intervention. The Population Council’s MNCP evaluation was designed to estimate program impact and trends among girls at the community level, across settings that differ with respect to child marriage prevalence and drivers. The evaluation explored behavioral outcomes related to child marriage, schooling, work, and pregnancy, as well as indicators measuring relevant knowledge and attitudes.

Insights Collection: Natural disasters and humanitarian settings

Population Council interns Nannette Beckley, Anne-Caroline Midy, Danielle Richard, and Lauren Rutherford curated a selection of Council-led publications that highlight the ways in which various natural disasters result in or contribute to the proliferation of humanitarian settings.

Findings from the violence outcomes in COVID-19 era study (VoCes-19): Baseline results

This report presents findings from the baseline survey of the Violence Outcomes in COVID-19 Era Study (VOCES-19). The study, conducted by Population Council Mexico in collaboration with the National Institute of Youth and the National Center for Gender Equity and Reproductive Health aims to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and accompanying mitigation measures on the experience and perception of violence among 15–24-year-olds living in Mexico, as well as its effects on other social, economic, and health, related outcomes. The primary objectives for this first survey round were to gather baseline information on several outcomes of interest, assess differential effects by gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status, and establish a cohort of adolescents and young adults to measure the impact of the pandemic on young people in Mexico over time.

COVID-19 knowledge, attitudes, and practices among young people in Port Said and Souhag, Egypt: A gender perspective

This brief summarizes findings from the Evidence Project, led by the Population Council and funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), from a survey conducted with 241 young men and women aged 18–34 in Egypt who had been receiving COVID-19 information via WhatsApp. The survey measured their COVID-19 knowledge, attitudes, and practices.

Exploration of the effect of the COVID-19 outbreak on women’s access to family planning services in Port Said and Souhag governorates [Arabic]

This brief summarizes findings from the Evidence Project, led by the Population Council and funded by the U. S. Agency for International Development (USAID), from a survey conducted with 241 young men and women aged 18–34 in Egypt who had been receiving COVID-19 information via WhatsApp. The survey measured their COVID-19 knowledge, attitudes, and practices.

Pre-pandemic Influences on Kenyan Girls’ Transitions to Adulthood during COVID-19

COVID-19 containment measures have left adolescent girls in Nairobi, Kenya vulnerable to negative educational, economic, and secondary health outcomes that threaten their safe transitions into adulthood. In June 2020, the Population Council conducted phone-based surveys with 856 girls aged between 10 and 19 in 5 informal settlements who had been surveyed prior to COVID-19 as part of five longitudinal studies. We performed bivariate and multivariable logistic regression analyses to assess the relationship between COVID-19 outcomes and potential protective or risk factors. We found that younger girls are experiencing high levels of food insecurity and difficulty learning from home during school closures, while many older girls face the immediate risk of dropping out of school permanently and have been forgoing needed health services.