Tim Wirth, president of the United Nations Foundation, says that education programs for women -- particularly adolescent girls -- play a crucial role in slowing down the pace of population growth and improving the quality of life for future generations.

Wirth, former undersecretary of state for global affairs, said in an interview that population stabilization is the most important issue facing the world today.

"We have to stabilize the world's population in order to be sure, particularly in the poorest parts of the world, that people have opportunities," he said. "And right now population is outstripping development in too many places.

"The security of our nation and our world hinges upon whether we can strike a sustainable, equitable balance between human numbers and the planet's capacity to support life," he added. "If we're not able to focus on population and consumption -- we are going to destroy the habitat of the world, and destroy the very systems that allow life to exist on Earth."

According to the U.N. Population Fund, world population has doubled since 1950 and now stands at more than 5,900 million. Every year, the world gains another 90 million inhabitants -- the equivalent of another Mexico -- and will reach a total of over 6,000 million next year.

Wirth said that the education of girls is a critical area for stabilizing population and a number one priority of the U.N. Foundation he now heads. The foundation was created in early 1998 through a $1,000-million-donation by R.E. "Ted" Turner, founder of the Cable News Network (CNN). The foundation supports U.N. causes that focus on population stabilization, women's empowerment, protection of the environment, and the advancement of children's health.

"We are focusing in particular on adolescent girls -- education programs for girls, helping to keep girls in school, giving girls the opportunity to have employment, giving girls legal rights, giving girls access to reproductive health care services," Wirth said.

"Inadequate education is a powerful determinant of high fertility and unquestionably ensures that individuals do not live up to their potential," he added. "All over the world, education should be a vital component of international population and development strategies, and we must eliminate the gap between educational opportunities for girls and boys."

Wirth noted that the Program of Action adopted at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development, held in Cairo, recognized that investing in women through education, health care, and employment is critical to the development process.

The Program of Action pointed to studies showing that when a woman has control over her life, she is better able to contribute to a society that presents her with choices, especially those related to marriage and child-bearing. Conversely, absence of decision-making power negatively affects a woman's productive role in the home, the market, and within the family.

"Recognizing women's worth to development, empowering them to contribute all of their wisdom and talents to society -- these represent the primary objectives for our participation in the World Conference on Women in Beijing three years ago, and our follow-up ever since," Wirth said.

Wirth also emphasized the importance of family planning as part of a comprehensive approach to slowing down the pace of population growth. He said that the Cairo conference signaled the world's renewed commitment to launch high quality, voluntary family planning and reproductive health programs with the aim of making them universally available as early in the next century as possible.

"A new sense of urgency was forged in support of making every effort to enable couples and individuals to fulfill the basic right -- agreed for 20 years -- to decide freely and responsibly on the number and spacing of their children, and to have the information, education, and means to do so," he said.

Unfortunately, Wirth said, the United States -- long the largest single donor to family planning programs overseas -- is far from doing its fair share in this vital area of development assistance.

"The United States was very much in a leadership role in 1992," he said. "Since then, Congress has challenged the importance of population and has cut the funding -- I think led by forces that believe that international family planning is a front for abortion, which is simply not true.

"The provision of family planning services reduces unintended pregnancies and makes abortions much less necessary," he continued. "Some of the very conservative right-to-life groups are mixing up the abortion issue with the overall global population issue -- at great detriment to the future of the world."

For the past three years, U.S. funding for international family planning programs has been held to just two-thirds of its 1995 level. Funding for fiscal 1999 could decline even further if proposed congressional cuts in international affairs spending are enacted into law.

The United States also owes $1,500 million in dues to the United Nations. Earlier this year, Congress passed a bill pledging to pay some of what it owes, but the bill was never sent to the president for approval.

"We are fast losing our leadership role, as we are in so many places in the United Nations, because of our unwillingness to meet our commitments -- pay the debt that we have and meet our overall commitments, and play the role of a truly great power, which we ought to be doing," Wirth said.

Wirth expressed hope that the momentum can be regained at an international forum -- known as the Cairo Plus Five Conference -- to be held February 8-12, 1999, in the Hague. The forum, which will include representatives from 180 countries, will review implementation of the Cairo Program of Action, assessing what has been achieved, what obstacles still exist, and what future actions are required.

"The conference is very important for the future of family planning services," Wirth said. "The purpose of the conference is to try to make the Program of Action more visible and effective. It's a very good set of agreements about just what ought to be done, and now it's time to try and do a better job of implementing it."

Jim Fuller writes on the environment and other global issues for the United States Information Agency.