Bios and Abstracts

Keynote Speeches

Demography has much to offer for the measurement and analysis of human well-being and quality of life, in assessing its constituents and studying its determinants. Being alive is a key prerequisite of enjoying any quality of life and hence the length of life should be the backbone of any indicator measuring well-being over time and across (sub-) populations. Avoiding premature death considered an essential goal across virtually all cultures and sub-populations, but it is not sufficient. The years of life should be “Years of Good Life” (YoGL). Here I will define and operationalize the YoGL indicator through life table methods (similar to healthy life expectancy) only measuring the years are above minimum thresholds both in terms of subjective life satisfaction as well as the objective indicators of being out of absolute poverty and being physically and mentally not disabled. This indicator has been tailer-made for assessing progress toward sustainable development and to be used as output variable in global systems models that also consider feed-backs from environmental change. In the lecture I will also this quantitatively.

Can Investments in Human Capital Compensate for Low Fertility? The Power of Multi-Dimensional Demography

Deputy Director General for Science at International Institute for Applied System Analysis

Professor Wolfgang Lutz

Founding Director, Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital

Wolfgang Lutz is the Interim Deputy Director General for Science for International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA). In additional to the various roles he has filled at IIASA over the years, Lutz is the Founding Director of the Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital, a cooperation between IIASA, the University of Vienna, and the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

Professor Lutz is a leading academic in the field of population and sustainable development and was one of the scientists appointed by the UN to write the Global Sustainable Development Report 2019 ‘The Future is Now’. He has won numerous prestigious awards including the Wittgenstein Prize, two European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grants, the Mattei Dogan award of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP), and most recently, the Science Prize of the Austrian Research Association. He is a member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the German National Academy Leopoldina, the US National Academy of Sciences (NAS), the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), the Finnish Society for Sciences and Letters, and the Academia Europaea. He serves as special advisor to the Vice-President of the European Commission Dubravka Suica.

He has published over 293 scientific articles and chapters in refereed books, including 24 in Science, Nature, and PNAS, wrote or edited 27 books and special issues, on international population trends with a special focus on population forecasting, population-development-environment interactions, and on introducing education. He holds a PhD in Demography from the University of Pennsylvania, USA.

Bio

Asia and the Pacific – home to 60 per cent of the global population – has been at the forefront of significant demographic changes. Since the first Asian Population Conference held in New Delhi in 1963, most countries have transitioned from high to low fertility and mortality. This has been coupled with increased migration, more people living in cities, and a shift toward population ageing.

These changes are the result of significant socio-economic improvements, and in that regard, they are a cause for celebration. But the region now stands at a crossroads. Recent demographic trends, such as low fertility and increased migration, rising socioeconomic inequalities and vulnerabilities, and the impact of climate change, disasters, and conflicts are challenging the region. At the same time, more people are living longer and often healthier lives, are positively affected by digital transformation and live in multigenerational societies.

This year, the world commemorates 30 years since adopting the landmark Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development. In 2023, governments and civil society organizations from Asia and the Pacific met for the Seventh Asian and Pacific Population Conference to review the implementation of the Programme of Action and the Asian and Pacific Ministerial Declaration on Population and Development. The year 2023 also coincided with the half-way mark in achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In this context, the keynote presentation will discuss the aforementioned demographic trends and their impact on socio-economic development. It will highlight achievements, good practices, lessons learned, and the remaining obstacles to designing and implementing people-centered, evidence- and rights-based policies to build inclusive and sustainable societies.

Asia & the Pacific At A Crossroads – Challenges and Opportunities of Demographic Change for Inclusive and Sustainable Societies

Chief, Sustainable Demographic Transition Section, Social Development Division, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP)

Dr Sabine Henning

Sabine Henning is the Chief for the Sustainable Demographic Transition Section, Social Development Division, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), Bangkok, Thailand. She currently leads work on population and development issues, focusing on research, capacity-building and intergovernmental support on population dynamics, ageing, migration, and youth.

From 2015-2018, Ms. Henning was Senior Population Affairs Officer and Chief, Office of the Director, Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), United Nations, New York, advising the Director, overseeing personnel and programme management, and serving as focal point for the annual sessions of the Commission on Population and Development.

From 2000 to 2015, she served successively in the Population Division’s Population Estimates and Projections Section, the Population and Development Section, the Migration Section, and the Population Policy Section. She has been involved in UN interagency work and coordination for over 15 years. In addition to publishing in peer-reviewed journals, she was principal author of UNDESA’s two-volume Compendium of Recommendations on Population and Development and contributed to three revisions each of UNDESA’s flagship publications World Population Prospects and World Urbanization Prospects, also to the biennial migrant stock estimates, reports of the Secretary-General on population and development and migration and development and other UN reports. She frequently represented the UN Secretariat at international conferences and serviced numerous intergovernmental meetings and high-level events at UN Headquarters dealing with population, migration, and development issues.

Ms. Henning has a Ph.D. in Geography with a doctoral-level certificate in Demography from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and a graduate-level certificate in Strategic Management from Harvard University.