smaller island countries and territories of Polynesia, 7.4%, and Micronesia, 6.2%. Two out of every three Pacific Is­landers live in Papua New Guinea. Fiji's population is 25% larger than ten Polynesian island countries and territories combined. The fertility rate in the Pacific Islands is still mod­erately high, while mortality is declining, contributing to in­creased population (Haberkorn, 2004).
     In ESAP, since people are the fundamental resource for sustainable development, investment in people would bear development dividends. Human resource-centered strate­gies present opportunity for sustainable development but also present enormous challenges to ensure equitable access to education, productive assets, goods and services to the billions of people. Transforming a large reserve of human resources to human capital and driving development will be the core challenge for achieving development with social sustainability.
     In Asia fertility declined remarkably. The average num­ber of children born to Asian women declined by more than half, from 5.4 in 1970 to 2.4 in 2003. Average life expec­tancy of Asian men and women increased about 15 years over the same period. Life expectancy for males increased from 52 years in 1970 to 66 years in 2003; for females, from 54 to 70 years (Hugo, 2005), overtaking men's life expectancy in nearly every country. In some Asian countries, however, girls were more likely than boys to die during early childhood and in others an unusual preponderance of male births pointed to sex selectiveness (Westley, 2002). Between 1950 and 2005 in most of the region's countries women gained and improved the sex ratio trend of the number of males per 100 females. Sex ratio also indicates gender equity by reflecting women's chances of survival. The population sex ratio improved either with decrease in female to male difference or with female gains over males. A few excep­tions were Brunei Darussalam, India, Samoa and Tonga (UNDESA, 2004).
     The region recorded increases in its aged population and female-headed households. The elderly population grew rapidly, in both numbers and percentage. The aging popu­lation proportion in industrial ESAP countries was greater than in the less industrial ones. Asia is one of the world's fastest aging regions; the percentage of elderly is projected to double between 2000 and 2030, but with differences among the countries (Kaneda, 2006). Industrial economies Australia, Japan and New Zealand had a rapid rate of ag­ing; by 2050, 25% of their population will be over 60. From 1950 to 2005, all but a few countries in the region, Bangla­desh, Maldives, Nepal and Papua New Guinea, increased their population aged over 60 years (UNDESA, 2004). An aging population challenges productivity and innovation in agriculture, and the potential for saving and investment. It increases poverty among the rural elderly.
     The decrease in fertility and the aging population in mostly industrial countries in the region contrasts with a growing youthful population in developing countries. The outlook for the future in Asia is that the youth population will increase to 685 million by 2040, when they will com­prise 14%. While the young adult population will continue to grow over the next two decades in developing countries, their numbers will decrease in most OECD nations in the region (Hugo, 2005). Yet while a large youth population

presents developing countries with a labor pool advantage, the lack of appropriate skills will form a barrier to using human resources effectively.

1.3.2     Accelerated urbanization with a significant rural population
Since 1950, Australia, China, Fiji, Indonesia, Japan, Korea DPR, the Republic of Korea and the Philippines have lost rural population. This has applied to most industrial coun­tries in the region. In most developing countries, however, the urban population is less than 50% of the total. Coun­tries that depend on agriculture as the economic driver have an urban population of less than 30%; these include Ban­gladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Lao PDR, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Vanuatu and Viet Nam. The projection for China is that the urban population will be 60% by 2030 (UNDESA, 2003).
     While the decrease in rural population will be minimal in Asia, the Pacific will gain rural population between 2010 and 2030 (UNDESA, 2004). The Asian Development Bank estimates there will be 2.2 billion rural Asians by 2020 and that this population will have much lower access to health and education and have less general well-being (ADB, 2000). By 2030, this region still will have a substantial rural popu­lation, demanding attention to agriculture, rural livelihood strategies and investment in rural physical and social service infrastructure.
     Asia is expected to experience rapid urbanization from 2005 to 2030; by 2030, 55% of Asian inhabitants are pro­jected to live in urban areas. Although economic growth and prices are closely monitored drivers of food demand, demographic changes—urbanization, growth in population and changes population age—likely will have more pro­found long-term effects on the region's food system. It will be affected by migration, the aging population and urban demand for a more varied diet, with a premium on conve­nience (Coyle et al., 2004).

1.3.3     Agricultural labor: Feminization, child labor and unpaid work
The overall share of agricultural employment decreased be­tween 1995 and 2005 from 44.4 to 40.1%. This decline was seen in all regions, except East Asia, where the share in agriculture remained stable. With a few exceptions, from 1979 to 2002 the percentage of agricultural labor in the total labor force decreased (Figure 1-2). The decline was remarkable among the wealth creators, such as Japan and Republic of Korea, Australia and New Zealand. For poorer wealth producers, such as Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Lao PDR, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, and the Solo­mon Islands, however, agriculture employed a large propor­tion of people and the rate of decrease was less. Thailand and China still illustrated the dominance of agriculture in employment, although they were high-growth countries. In general, for the poorer countries in the region, agriculture continues to be important for employment and livelihoods.
     The World Employment Report for 2004/2005 con­tended that rural nonfarm activities were important for household income; this also applied to poor households engaged in agriculture (ILO, 2004). In Asia, various esti­mates suggested that one-third of rural labor participated