Technology, research and development

The Programme of Action recognized the importance of technology and research for understanding the relationship between population and development and for anticipating change. In the interest of effective policymaking, it called for strengthening national capacities to collect, analyse and disseminate timely population data disaggregated by age, sex, ethnicity and geographic unit. It urged Governments to sustain their commitment to regular data collection and analysis and full utilization of data. Furthermore, the Programme of Action called for an improved understanding of factors affecting universal reproductive health, including sexual health, and for research on products for regulating fertility, including natural methods. New and improved methods of regulating fertility should be made available, and the number of relevant partnerships between the public and private sectors should be increased. The Cairo document also emphasized the importance of promoting sociocultural and economic research on issues related to population and development, in order to assist in the design of policies, programmes, activities and services, as well as in their implementation, monitoring and evaluation. In particular, the Programme of Action identified sociocultural and economic research as a means to better understand sexual and reproductive behaviour, the causes and consequences of migration and mobility, and differentials in mortality and morbidity between population subgroups.

Related Subject(s): Population and Demography