Americas

Home page

Americas

UN official says 7 BLN world population could be opportunity

26 October 2011 17:59 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. As the world population is projected to reach seven billion in a few days, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) on Wednesday acknowledged the challenge while said it could be an opportunity, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

"Seven billion people will inhabit the earth on 31 October," UNFPA Executive Director Babatunde Osotimehin told a press conference to release the report entitled The State of World Population 2011.

Acknowledging the problems such as aging society and environmental burden, Osotimehin said the milestone event is "a challenge," but also described it as "an opportunity and a call to action."

He noted that of the world’s seven billion population, 1.8 billion are young people between 10 and 24, and that "the opportunity to realize youth’s great potential must be seized now."

"Young people hold the key to the future, with the potential to transform the global landscape and to propel economies through their creativity and capacities for innovation," said Osotimehin.

He further suggested that "we should be investing in the health and education of our youth. This would yield enormous returns in economic growth and development for generations to come."

Osotimehin also said that the issue of population "is not a matter of space," but "is one of equity, opportunity and social justice."

The record population could be viewed as a success for humanity because it means that people are living longer and more of our children are surviving worldwide, remarked Osotimehin, but not every one has benefited from this achievement or the higher quality of life that this implies.