Recent years have seen a concerted effort to rewrite post-war family planning efforts as one big racist, sexist, imperialist conspiracy. It is now important, as the last people who worked on these campaigns pass from the scene, to reflect honestly yet fairly on their work. Here Céline Delacroix, a senior fellow with the Population Institute, interviews population activist and scholar Joseph Speidel, to discuss these early efforts and the role Carl Wahren played in them.
by Céline Delacroix
Earlier this year, The Overpopulation Project (TOP) launched an initiative to document first-hand accounts from key figures who played pivotal roles in promoting and advancing family planning worldwide. By capturing these personal narratives, the project aims to shed light on the historical context and motivations behind the movement, which was driven by a desire to address pressing global challenges and was closely linked to broader concerns about rapid population growth and environmental degradation.
These interviews also tackle the narrow recharacterization of the family planning movement as one defined by coercion, racism, and the exploitation of women’s bodies. The project aims to offer a more nuanced perspective by amplifying the voices of those who were directly involved, providing a balanced view of the movement’s impact and legacy.
The first documentary in this series presents an in-depth interview with Carl Wahren, a political scientist whose 60-year career focused on global issues such as sustainable development, demographic dynamics, and gender equity. He held key positions, including Secretary General of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), and worked with organizations like the OECD and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Sadly, Carl Wahren has since passed away, making his reflections even more poignant. To continue this dialogue, we invited Joe Speidel, a veteran in the field who knew and admired Carl Wahren, to share his own reflections on the conversation.
Joe Speidel is a distinguished expert in population & family planning, having held leadership roles at the University of California’s Bixby Center, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Population Action International, and the US Agency for International Development.
Joe, thank you for participating in this interview! Could you start by sharing how you came to know Carl Wahren? What were the circumstances that led to your professional or personal relationship, and how did your paths cross within the international family planning community?
I joined the U.S. Agency for International Development in 1969 to work on international population problems. In comparison to work on issues such as food security, health, and general economic development, there was a very small cadre of professional staff in the development assistance field working on population and family planning, so I easily met many of them, including Carl, at international fora.
Carl Wahren strongly rebuts claims that prior to the International Conference on Population and Development which took place in Cairo in 1994, population interventions were coercive and imposed by the West. What are your thoughts on this perspective?
Almost all of the family planning programs pre-Cairo were voluntary, but several programs with overly zealous leaders had coercive features, for example forced sterilizations in India. Even though the duration and number of settings for these unfortunate programs was very limited, some program critics irresponsibly charge that all family planning was unwanted and imposed by the West. In reality, the government and private programs in low-income countries were run by indigenous country organizations and personnel. And with appropriate provision of family planning information and services, they were greeted with widespread acceptance by men and women of reproductive ages.
The Cairo conference strongly endorsed the existing family planning programs, but also called for an increased emphasis on other reproductive health services including addressing safe childbirth and sexually transmitted infections–especially the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Carl highlighted the participatory and community-driven nature of family planning programs in the global South during the 1950s and 1960s. In your experience, how widely were these approaches implemented, and how crucial were they to the success of these programs?
There is little doubt that community engagement, improvements in women’s equality and empowerment, and family planning were mutually supportive. Women with community support, reproductive autonomy and gender equity were empowered and motivated to take advantage of the services provided by family planning.
Many family planning information programs recognized that some people would have to move from a culture where the number of children born was fatalistically accepted to an awareness that informed choice about the number and spacing of children was possible. And in addition, information activities helped people view fewer children as desirable for the betterment of themselves, their families, their community and national welfare.
Carl Wahren mentioned that family planning efforts were supported by engaging powerful figures like Ministers of Finance, rather than just Ministers of Health. In your experience, how important was this broader economic and social mobilization in ensuring the success of family planning initiatives?
The most successful programs were characterized by engagement of influential leaders; e.g., celebrities, religious leaders and politicians. When family planning was a new endeavour, buy-in by ministries of finance was critical to the mobilization of domestic resources, even if generous foreign aid was available.
What do you think are the most significant misconceptions about the pre-Cairo family planning programs that Carl Wahren’s interview helps to clarify? How can we work to overcome these misconceptions?
Women’s advocacy groups were active at the Cairo conference in support of reproductive rights and broader women’s reproductive health programs, such as increased funding of safe maternity care. Carl’s interview helps to clarify that criticism of pre-Cairo programs should not be against family planning programs per se, but against the lack of other reproductive health services.
It is worth noting that in the decade following the ICPD, no additional donor funds to support the calls for a broader range of reproductive health activities, including for safe maternity and addressing sexually transmitted infections, was forthcoming. Population assistance funding was therefore shifted away from family planning, to support work on HIV/AIDS and other reproductive health activities. The proportion of population assistance provided for family planning declined from over 50% in 1995 to less than 10% in 2008, and donor funding for family planning declined by 44% from $723 million in 1995 to $404 million in 2008.
As someone who knew and admired Carl Wahren, what aspects of his approach to family planning do you believe were most influential in shaping the movement, and how can these lessons be applied to current and future family planning efforts?
Carl’s work was driven by data and a deep understanding of the realities of the difficulty of providing a controversial service to millions of people in poor countries. It also showed the importance of external sources of contraceptive supplies, technical know-how, and financial assistance, at least initially, before domestic government and private resources became the predominant source of funds for family planning. It demonstrated that even in countries with severe poverty, low levels of education and lack of fully equal rights for women, the benefits of family planning can become widespread and detrimentally rapid population growth attenuated at reasonable cost. Most of the credit must go to the committed leaders and dedicated family planning workers in low-income countries, but the donors and NGOs that provided generous and catalytic assistance also deserve acclaim.
This text by Céline Delacroix was first published on her blog at FP/Earth. Visit the site and learn more.
