Poverty and human development in the Third World.

A nation's policies with regard to children and families give a fairly direct reflection of its economic, social, and political structure. Economic, social, and political beliefs are translated into assumptions about the ideal relation of society to the family and the individual. The industrial, developed countries with their relatively high standard of living face an entirely different set of circumstances from those confronting underdeveloped countries where resources are often grossly unevenly distributed; where malnutrition is often endemic; childhood disease rife; and where survival is the first goal. The bulk of the world's children are in the developing countries, and the largest number are in the low income countries. In the past 35 years the world's population has almost doubled, and that growth has been largely concentrated in the developing countries where it is now about 2% per year. In a substantial proportion of the world's low income countries the number of children in the year 2000 will be double what it was in 1975, and this despite an expected fall in the birth rate. Consequently, the age distribution of the population differs between the developed and underdeveloped countries (Table 1). On average just under 40% of the population of underdeveloped countries is below the age of 15 years.