Updated December 1999

	Contents Population and poverty: the policy issues, by Geoffrey McNicoll Population and environmental change: from linkages to policy issues, by Alain Marcoux Rural poverty: population dynamics, local institutions and access to resources, by Eve Crowley and Kirsten Appendini Anthropometric, health and demographic indicators, by Simon Chevassus-Agnès Workshop report highlights

How can the UNFPA Technical Support Services (TSS) system enhance the contribution of population programmes to poverty alleviation and to the promotion of sustainable development? That was the critical question addressed by an FAO/ILO Thematic Workshop on Population, Poverty and Environment, held in Rome on 26-30 October 1998. The workshop brought together actors of the TSS system - in particular Country Support Teams (CST) Advisers - in an effort to identify:

• the program implications of the linkages between population trends, incidence of poverty and environmental degradation;
• ways of dealing with those implications in the context of the recommendations of international fora such as the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and development and the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development.

Poverty was placed at the core of the conceptual framework, with population and environment being considered mainly in terms of their connections with poverty. The potential contribution of the TSS system was viewed not only within the context of institutional advantages and constraints, but also within the framework of the potential assistance that can be provided by population institutions and population expertise in general.

This Special includes four documents from the on Workshop on Population, Poverty and Environment. The Workshop was jointly organized by FAO's Population Programme Service and ILO's Labour and Population Unit, with UNFPA financial support. It was attended by staff from ECA, ESCAP, ESCWA, FAO, ILO, UNDESA, UNESCO, UNFPA and UNIFEM.