..Press Release................................ UNESCAP News Services

Date 15 November 2006
Information Note No. N/42/2006

Asia-Pacific Population Journal celebrates 20th anniversary

1986-2006: Twenty Years of Progress in the Field of Population and Development

Bangkok (United Nations Information Services) – The Asia-Pacific Population Journal has documented knowledge and thinking in the field of population and development in the region for over 20 years.

In print since March 1986, the Asia-Pacific Population Journal, published by ESCAP with financial support from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is a highly respected publication in which leading experts share their evidence-based findings, theories and opinions on population and development in the region. The Journal appears three times a year and is disseminated free of charge to an influential audience of policy makers, programmes planners and researchers in over 75 countries. The web-based version of the Journal, accessible in full text at www.unescap.org/appj.asp recently enjoyed a surge of popularity with over 180,000 visitors a month on average in 2006, representing a fivefold increase since 2005.

The Asia-Pacific Population Journal will mark its 20th anniversary this year. Among other events to mark this landmark anniversary, a special commemorative issue has been prepared which focuses on 20 years of progress in the field of population and development. It received contributions from prominent experts in the field, including Mrs. Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, Executive Director of UNFPA and award-winning demographers John C. Caldwell from the Australian National University and Mercedes B. Concepcion from the University of the Philippines.

Numerous thought-provoking and forward-looking articles on a wide range of topics, from population and development issues to population ageing, international migration and reproductive health have filled the publication history of the Journal, contributed by world-class authors alike as well as by uncelebrated researchers in smaller countries of the Asian and Pacific region.

“The various issues of the Asia-Pacific Population Journal published over the past two decades are a faithful mirror of the evolving trends and issues discussed in the field of population and development in the region”, commented Keiko Osaki, Editor and Chief, Population and Social Integration Section, Emerging Social Issues Division, ESCAP. “The Journal has gone from strength to strength and carved an undisputed niche for itself in the field of population and development”.

The special 20th anniversary issue of the Asia-Pacific Population Journal will be launched during a reception on Monday 20th November at the Shangri-La Hotel in Bangkok, on the eve of the 2006 International Parliamentarians’ Conference on the Implementation of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Programme of Action to take place at the United Nations Conference Centre on 21st and 22nd November.

For further information, please contact:

Mr. David Lazarus
Chief, United Nations Information Services, Bangkok
Tel: (+662) 288 –1862; Fax: (+662) 288-1052
E-mail: unisbkk.unescap@un.org

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