Population Council Research that makes a difference

7. Ensure environmental sustainability

• Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes; reverse loss of environmental resources
• Reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water
• Achieve significant improvement in lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers, by 2020

Of the expected 1.8 billion people to be added to the world’s population by the year 2030, nearly all are likely to reside in cities and towns of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Council researchers study ways to incorporate sustainable development into country policies and programs and to achieve significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers by 2020.

The Population Council’s urban research is underway on two fronts:

• analysis of urban poverty measures based on demographic survey data; and
• development of new, spatially sensitive methods for estimating and projecting urban populations, with attention to where the urban poor are located within and across cities.
  
  

Read more about the Population Council's research on urbanization, health, and the environment.

Selected project

• Measures of Urban Poverty (1999–ongoing)