Committee: The World Health Organization ( WHO )

Topic: Addressing the crisis of world fertility rate

Country: Republic of Colombia

Delegate Name: Ta Thi Thu Hang

The world fertility crisis is a phenomenon of declining birth rates across the globe, which
poses sustantive socio-economic challenges for the future generations. The global fertility rate,
which measures the average numer of babies a woman has during her childbearing age, has
sizably fallen from 4.8 in 1950 to 2.3 in 2023 and is projected to drop below 1.9 in 2100. The
causes of this phenomenon encompass women’s empowerment in education and work, lower
child mortality, urbanization, declining marriage rate, greater access to contraception as well as
changes in social norms. As a consequence of declining fertility rate, most countries will be
confronted with shrinking and aging populations, leading to dwindling human capital and high
dependency ratio in the foreseeable future. In other words, the global fertility decline has resulted
in such dire implications as labor shortages, pension deficits, economic stagnation, social
instability and so on. Plausibly, the world fertility crisis is a complex and multifaceted issue that
requires interdisciplinary and collaborative solutions from governments, NGOs, civil society and
individuals.

With regard to the severity of the globe’s fertility crisis, the UN has taken considerable
actions to tackle the problem and its ramifications. The UN has informed policy makers and the
public about the causes, consequences and solutions to this issue through published reports such
as “World Fertility and Family Planning 2020”. Futhermore, the UN has organized conferences
to bring together governments, civil society, academia, private sector and stakeholders to share
experiences and recommendations on how to address the crisis of global fertility rate. For
instance, the ICDP in Cairo in 1994 promoted the provision of universal access to reproductive
health services, including family planning, infertility treatment, prevention of sexually
transmitted infections, maternal and child health, and safe abortion according to Part A Chapter
VII of the Programme of Action adopted by 179 goverments. As a result, voluntary access to
modern contraceptive methods has increased by 25% and preventable maternal deaths have
declined by 40% since 1994. This has sizably decreased the fertility rate by 0.6% in 2021 which
helps strike a balance between the world population and available resources. At the same time,
more and more businesses bring in friendly policies that encourage reproduction in order to curb
the global decline of fertility rate such as providing flexible work arrangements, offering fertility
benefits as part of employees’s health insurance plans and so on. Nonetheless, the world fertility
rate keeps declining since 1968 due to aforementioned causes and the divergence among nations’
fertility rates.

Being part of countries with the fertility rate below the replacement level, Colombia is also
subject to low fertility rate’s adverse impacts on its future population size, age structure and
development prospects. According to statistics, the fertility rate of Colombia has been decreasing
steadily by nearly 5% since 1960 when it was 6.74%. This phenomenon accompanies with the
decline of human capital, productivity, competitiveness and fiscal sustainability of Colombia,
which poses a threat to its economic growth and social stability. To resolve this issue, the
government has ensured family planning service delivery as a basic right of Colombian.
Moreover, NGOs are also making attempts to implement more programs and campaigns to
encourage fertility such as the project “Safe and secure spaces for our children” by Fundacion
CRAN, “Giving health to 60,000 sick children in Colombia” by Hospital of San Vicente
Foundation and so on.

Despite efforts made to the global fertility crisis, the decline in the world fertility rate
perpetuates and is projected to keep declining to 1.94 in 2100, which is below the replacement
rates. To this issue, Colombia acknowledge the importance of collaboration between developed
countries and developing ones to tackle the paradox of quality-quantity trade-off in both affluent
areas and poor, agrarian regions. Additionally, Colombia also emphasizes the neccessity of
women’s empowerment and increasing wellness and security of children, which must be
accompanied with greater of the economy. What is more, Colombia takes the impact of social
norms and expectations into consideration as well, thereby calling for campaigns that raise
communities’ awareness of gender equality and diminish inimical steoreotypes that detrimentally
influence both males and females’s decision-making.

Citation:
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