IUSSP: Journey to Marrakech

The International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP) held its meeting in Marrakech, Morocco this year. The union meets every four years and this was my second time in attendance. It’s a fascinating group of papers and people – one that’s far more international than the conferences of the U.S.-based Population Association of America. Because of that, population-environment scholarship tends to be far more represented at the IUSSP given its greater prominence within development inquiry.

IUSSP: http://www.iussp.org/

Population & Environment Session

Within a session on “Population Pressure, Resource Use and Environmental Degradation”, I presented recent results from my collaborative work with Wayne Twine (Wits, South Africa) and Laura Patterson (graduate student, CU-Boulder). The work is based at the Agincourt Health and Demographic Surveillance Site

http://web.wits.ac.za/Academic/Health/PublicHealth/Agincourt/agincourthome.htm

and examines natural resource use as related to food security among AIDS-impacted households. The session’s papers were:

Population dynamics, future food requirements and environmental impacts in sub-Saharan Africa • Barbara Boyle Torrey, Population Reference Bureau (PRB)

HIV/AIDS, food security and the role of the natural environment: evidence from the Agincourt health and demographic surveillance site in rural South Africa • Lori M. Hunter, University of Colorado at Boulder; Laura Patterson, University of Colorado at Boulder; Wayne Twine, University of the Witwatersrand

Environmental degradation, population pressure and health in South India: elite capture or poor information? • Monica Das Gupta, World Bank Group; Vijayendra Rao, World Bank Group; Radu Ban, World Bank Group

Estimating carbon and methane footprints from demographic and health survey data • Shea Rutstein, Macro International Inc.

Environment and Health Session

I also had the opportunity to act as “discussant” for a session on Environment and Health. Here, I aimed to provide productive feedback for the authors and to bring the lessons learned within each paper together into a comprehensive contribution. The session’s papers were:

Environment & Health

Chair: Daniel Joseph Hogan, Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP)
Discussant: Lori M. Hunter, University of Colorado at Boulder

Influence of community environment and sanitary conditions of households on diarrhoea morbidity in an urban setting in Cameroon: the case of Yaounde and Douala • Félicien Fomekong, Institut National de la Statistique du Cameroun

Do integrated population, health and environment programs work? Gathering evidence using a quasi-experimental design. • Eckhard Kleinau, Analysis, Information Management & Communications Activity (AIM); Odile Randriamananjara, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID); Fred Rosensweig, Training Resources Group, Inc

Diarrhoea, acute respiratory infection, and fever among children in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) • Ngianga-Bakwin Kandala, University of Warwick

Urbanization, water and health in Brazil: aspects of dengue fever epidemics • Roberto Luiz do Carmo, Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP)

Beyond the conference venue

Of course, when in Marrakech, one must explore!


I took two guided tours -- one to the "souks" (the central markets) and one to several local gardens -- and then explored on my own!

The Souks:

The gardens included a visit to Jardin Marjorelle:

http://www.jardinmajorelle.com/en/