Population Council
From TrustAfrica wiki - African Regional Organizations
Regional Office—Ghana
Population Council
Medlab Building, 14B Roma Road
Roman Ridge, Accra, Ghana
Telephone: +233 21 780711/2
Facsimile: +233 21 780713
E-mail: info@pcaccra.org
Homepage: http://www.popcouncil.org
Burkina Faso
Population Council
01 BP 6250
Ouagadougou 01, Burkina Faso
Telephone: +226 31 12 42/3
Facsimile: +226 31 12 46
E-mail: pcburkina@popcouncil.bf
Ethiopia
Population Council
Heritage Plaza, 1st Floor
Bole Road, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Telephone: +251 0 911 209 797, 116 631 712/14/16/20
Facsimile: +251 0 116 631 722
E-mail: pcethiopia@popcouncil.org
Kenya
Population Council
General Accident House
Ralph Bunche Road
PO Box 17643 Nairobi 005, Kenya Telephone: +254 20 271 3480/1/2/3
Facsimile: +254 20 271 3479
E-mail: info@pcnairobi.org
Mali
Population Council
BP E.666 Hamadallaye
Avenue Cheick Zayed
Immeuble ABK1, Apartment 203
Bamako, Mali
Telephone: +223 229 27 64/7
Facsimile: +223 229 94 35
E-mail: sdoumbia@popcouncil.mali.org
Senegal
Population Council
BP 21027 Dakar, Senegal
Telephone: +221 865 1255
Facsimile: +221 824 1998
E-mail and publications inquiries: pcdakar@pcdakar.org
South Africa
Population Council
PO Box 411744 Craighall 2024
Johannesburg, South Africa
Telephone: +27 11 438 4400/7200
Facsimile: +27 11 787 7371
E-mail: lndhlovu@pcjoburg.org.za
Sudan
Population Council
Building 106, Square 11
Al Ryad, Khartoum, Sudan
Telephone: +24 9 15 523 4967
Zambia
Room 101, Pamodzi Hotel
P/Bag RW 319X
Lusaka, Zambia
Telephone: +260 1 255 035
Facsimile: +260 1 254 580
E-mail: wlubasi@popcouncil.org
Description
The Population Council was established in 1952 after John D. Rockefeller III convened a group of scientists to discuss the implications of the dramatic demographic change under the auspices of the National Academy of Sciences in Williamsburg, Virginia. The Council´s major objective is to improve the well-being and reproductive health of current and future generations around the world and to help achieve a humane, equitable and sustainable balance between people and resources.
The Council conducts research, capacity building and technical assistance. Its scientists and specialists around the world conduct research in a unique range of activities that include: HIV and AIDS; poverty, gender and youth; and, reproductive health. In particular, the Council focuses on biomedical, public health, and social science research on population issues. It has been instrumental in the design of health products, service-delivery programs and public policies responsive to the needs of people living in the world’s poorest countries. The Council has different objectives for each project.
Track Record
In its 55 years work, the Council achieved several milestones. Recognizing the diversity of social and cultural views related to population issues in different countries, the Population Council provided grants to individuals and institutions to strengthening the indigenous capacity of countries and regions to conduct population research and to develop their own policies. The Council also funded seminal work in U.S. universities and further developed its own in-house research expertise in biomedicine, public health, and social science.
As the number of requests for advice from developing country leaders grew, the Population Council realized that evidence-based technical assistance should be added to research and capacity building as a mechanism for achieving its mission. In the 1960s, the Council played a key role in documenting the large numbers of people in poor countries who lacked access to contraceptives and conducted research to design and evaluate public family planning programs. At the same time, the Council's biomedical researchers worked to develop new contraceptive methods, such as the intrauterine device. This was coupled with the establishment of an international network to enhance the development of new contraceptive methods and a significantly increased international representation on the board of trustees.
The Population Council has been conducting research and other programs in the sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) region for 40 years. Policymakers, program managers and others concerned with population issues turn to the Population Council for rigorous research results. Similarly, the widespread dissemination of its findings—and partnerships with nearly 200 governments, universities, and nongovernmental organizations—ensures that the Council’s research work can and does make a positive difference in people's lives. The Council publishes two scholarly, peer-reviewed journals titled Population and Development Review and Studies in Family Planning. Staff members also publish their work in a wide range of external outlets, including other peer-reviewed journals. The Council’s Web site, www.popcouncil.org contains selected publications in HTML and PDF formats and lists hundreds of articles and other publications by staff members.
On the other hand, the Population Council pioneered the application of systematic research techniques in the early 1980s to improve family planning service delivery, launched efforts to raise the quality of care in these programs and increasingly emphasized taking a broad view on reproductive health. The last initiative had considerable influence at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development.
For over a decade the Population Council's Microbicides program has been working to develop a female-initiated vaginal microbicide to increase the range of options for HIV prevention, through basic science research, product development, and relevant social science research. The Council's lead candidate microbicide, Carraguard® is currently being tested in a human efficacy trial in three sites in South Africa.
The Robert H. Ebert Program on Critical Issues in Reproductive Health pursues innovative research, technical assistance, and dissemination activities to address neglected or marginalized issues that affect the reproductive health and rights of women and men, particularly in the developing world. The Ebert program has contributed to major advances in the understanding of reproductive and sexual health, resulting in measurable improvements in health services around the world.
The Council's work is funded by governments, multilateral organizations, foundations and individuals.
Challenges and Opportunities
Challenges to the Council´s operations include the intensifying population issues such as the largest-ever generation of adolescents and the AIDS epidemic which have emerged in the last decade or so.
The challenges that motivate the Population Council include the facts that: every minute, ten people are newly infected with HIV and six die of AIDS; women in sub-Saharan Africa are 175 times more likely to die in childbirth than women in developed regions of the world; and condoms are the only products that prevent both pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. There is a dire need for more products that offer dual protection; more than half the world's people live on less than two dollars a day; more than 1 billion people do not have access to an adequate supply of drinking water; more than 2.5 billion do not have access to basic sanitation; more than 2 billion lack access to a reliable source of electricity; and in the next ten years at least 100 million girls are expected to be married before they turn 18. Married girls are often highly susceptible to HIV infection and are at increased risk for dropping out of school, domestic violence, and coerced sex.
