Population issues are crucially important for environmental sustainability, agricultural production and food security. A population is a group of men and women with similar demographic characteristic related to, for example, their fertility, mortality rate, migration habits, age group, productive capacities, food requirements, and other abilities and needs. These features change over time, and depend on biophysical, socio-cultural, economic and institutional factors. Agricultural and rural development strategies can be either helped or hindered by the demographic characteristics and trends of the populations they are meant to serve. An understanding of these linkages is key to successful policy and planning for sustainable development and lasting improvements in the well-being of rural societies.

FAO’s Gender, Equity and Rural Employment Division (ESW) analyses population issues from a socio-cultural perspective, with particular emphasis on changes in socio-demographic structures, the territorial distribution of people, and the economic and social impacts of human diseases. The overarching aim of ESW’s work is to identify and promote holistic policies and programmes that take into account both demographic and agricultural factors. This approach is in line with the recommendations of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development and the 1996 World Food Summit (WFS), both of which highlighted the importance of a holistic and interdisciplinary perspective on population and development issues.

ESW provides FAO member countries and development specialists with information and advice on how rural development is shaped by demographic change – how changes in the demographics of rural communities influence patterns of farming, the characteristics of rural employment, trends in poverty and food security, and the success of rural development interventions. The Division also collects information about FAO’s and other institutions’ experiences in agriculture, forestry and fisheries that are relevant to population-related activities, and brings it to the attention of policy-makers, programme designers and others concerned with population, food security and rural development matters.