Population growth is blamed for everything, from poverty and climate change to crime and conflict. But while a growing population presents challenges, can it actually be a positive thing?
In this month's focus podcast we discuss different ideas about the impact of population growth on development and the environment in the world's poorest countries. We'll ask what aid donors and other development actors should – and shouldn't – do about population issues, and we'll look at the human rights questions thrown up by attempts to control population.
To debate these issues, Madeleine Bunting is joined in the studio by Claire Melamed, head of the growth and equity programme at the Overseas Development Institute, and former head of policy at ActionAid UK, and Roger Martin, chairman of the UK population charity Population Matters. And we hear from Eliya Zulu, executive director of the African Institute for Development Policy and president of the Union for African Population Studies.
