ABSTRACT
Development performance during the seventies and eighties regularly showed that in spite of the reasonable economic growth rates achieved in some developing countries, underemployment and poverty increased, while improvements in living conditions of large groups of the population stagnated or deteriorated in many developing countries. Population and labour participation increased drastically, leading to urban-rural and formal-informal imbalances in many countries. This situation resulted in an increased pressure for initiating and formulating consistent public measures to cope with the mounting problems. Such information and actions have instilled in development planners an interest in the integration of population aspects into development planning.
