Population planning in Asia in the 1970s

Bibliographic Data

ID4268528
AuthorsVincent Heath Whitney (corresponding author), Vincent Health Whitney (corresponding author)
Year1977
Volume8
Issue3
Pages79
Publication date1977-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueStudies in Family Planning (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0039-3665 • E-ISSN: 1728-4465
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/1965559
PMID22077810
OpenAlexW4236843905
LanguageEN
References cited10

and social changes by modifying existing institutional structures and practices or by initiating new ones. The establishment of such changes will frequently require the alteration of previously existing values and practices. From this perspective it will readily be seen that the success of programmes designed to achieve planning targets may depend on the willingness of those persons directly affected to accept social changes and on their ability to adapt to new forms in ways which do not destroy the capacity of the system to meet the frequently conflicting demands of the component groups. Meaningful development planning also requires the allocation of scarce resources, based on hard choices with respect both to competing goals and the means to achieve them. It should - but seldom, if ever, does - depend on an identification and balancing of all the factors which affect and are affected by these choices. It requires a rational and objective determination of national goals and of their feasibility. It necessitates a system of priorities. Once plans are translated into programmes, there must be effective evaluation of progress toward the ends sought. This may involve not only modification of the means employed but even of the ends themselves. An examination of specific national plans underscores the wide difference between such theoretical conceptions and reality. There are many understandable reasons for such a gap. Among them are the short time periods, usually no more than five years, covered in most plans. These tend to result in limited targets and weak programmes, which not infrequently become substitutes for the major changes required to alter long-run economic and social processes. Again, planning proposals often appear to threaten powerful economic interests or fragile political regimes. Even if plans are adopted, they can be rendered ineffective by inadequate funding. This may occur by intent, merely through lack of interest or understanding on the part of those who manage the budget, or as a result of unanticipated changes in national income or expenditures over which a particular country may have little or no control. There is always the danger that planning will become little more than an abstract exercise, centred on dubious projections and on models for which data inputs are wholly inadequate. In some countries, planning appears almost an acquiescence to a new international fad or, alternatively, a device to satisfy foreign donor agencies as a pre-condition for grants or loans. As Wolfe has pointed out, '. . . planning can receive a good deal of formal backing and publicity without any serious attention on the part of the national authorities to the practical measures needed for its implementation.'1

Birth rate · China · Developing country · Development economics · East Asia · Economic growth · Economic planning · Economics · Environmental health · Family planning · Family planning policy · Geography · Political science · Population · Population control · Population growth · Regional planning · Research methodology · Social planning · Social policy · Socioeconomics · Sociology · Urban planning · Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences · Demography · Engineering · Global Maternal and Child Health · HIV/AIDS Impact and Responses · Medicine · Social and Economic Development in India · Socioeconomic Development in Asia · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub