[On the way to Beijing: Dakar Conference]. / En route pour Pekin: Conference de Dakar.

PIP: In November 1994 in Senegal, Dakar will host the regional conference on women. Its purpose is to develop a common action plan that Africa will present in Beijing. Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and governments have already been preparing for this meeting. This conference had been organized by a series of meetings continent-wide, where governments and NGOs clarified their positions on the 3 themes: equality, development, and peace. The Ministry of Women and the Family has the task of preparing the Senegalese viewpoint of the operation. Senegalese authorities want to make the meeting in Dakar a success. They have decided to have expositions, cultural displays, a women's business forum, a village restaurant where representatives from each country will get to know the culinary wealth of other countries, and a gala event. Everyone is ready to discuss equality, women's access to decision making structures (especially in the education sector), and better distribution of income between the sexes. NGOs do not intend to sit back and do nothing at the conference, but intend to influence the editing of the action plan. Many women's and health-based NGOs are rising up against the gaps of the action plan which only consider women's biological and physical aspects but not their mental and psychological aspects. Participants should consider the disastrous effects of sexual abuse and early marriages. Are governments ready to reform their laws which tend to discriminate against women and institutionalize their low status? Do they have the political will to check the conservative forces, such as those that spoke out against women in the final report of the forum in Tunisia? The number of women in powerful posts in Africa is growing. They can certainly advance things more rapidly than in the recent past. Women at Dakar should work together to address conflicts in Africa. Women should insist that women participate in all peace negotiations.^ieng

[Significant natality decline in Tunisia. The fruits of perseverance]. / Baisse significative de la natalite en Tunisie. Les fruits de la perseverance.

PIP: Recent estimates from Tunisia's Planning Ministry indicate that Tunisia's rate of natural increase declined from 2.46% per year in 1960 to 1.91% in 1991. The authorities project a growth rate of 1.8% through 1996 and a regular decline thereafter to .9% by 2021. The population would thus increase from 8.2 million in 1991 to 13.1 million in 2026, by which time the population would be almost stationary. All currently available data appear to support these projections. The proportion of children under 5 in the total population has declined from 18.6% in 1966 to 13% in 1989, and, if the trend continues, it will fall to 10.5% in 10 years and 7.5% in 2026. The proportion over age 60 will increase from 7.6% in 1989 to 8% around 2000 and 13% in 2025, a proportion equivalent to that of European countries. Within a few years, the pace of construction of new schools and health and social facilities to accommodate population growth should slow. Tunisia still faces some 20 years of changing age structure before the fertility decline leads to a decline in the demand for new jobs. The proportion of Tunisians aged 15-29 will increase from under 20% and fewer than 1 million in 1966 to 30% and over 3 million in 2001. Recognition of the basic rights of women since 1956, a vigorous policy to encourage limitation of births, and slow but regular improvements in living standards have been factors in Tunisia's fertility decline.^ieng