The papers in this report are based on an edited selection of presentations made at two meetings on population censuses. The first was the UNFPA/PARIS21 International Expert Group Meeting on Mechanisms for Ensuring Continuity of 10-Year Population Censuses: Strategies for Reducing Census Costs held in Pretoria on 26-29 November 2001 and the second meeting was a UNFPA In-House Capacity Building Workshop on Population Censuses: New Directions and Cost Saving Strategies held in Princeton, New Jersey on 21-23 October 2002.

This joint stocktaking report highlights the importance of knowing the features of different AIDS epidemics in order to contain or reverse them. It argues for expanded paediatric AIDS testing and treatment as well as prevention of mother-to-child transmission and new infections among adolescents and young people. It also advocates for expanded protection and care for the approximately 15 million children globally who have lost either one or both of their parents due to AIDS, sparking greater attention to the needs of all vulnerable young.

Some 340 million new cases of sexually transmitted infections, excluding HIV, occur each year. This technical publication outlines the main issues involved in diagnosis and treatment of these infections, which cause serious health problems and also increase vulnerability to HIV. The publication also describes associated challenges for programming and implications for reproductive health policy.

Countries are making real progress in carrying out a bold global action plan that links poverty alleviation to women's rights and universal access to reproductive health. Ten years into the new era opened by the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, the quality and reach of family planning programmes have improved, safe motherhood and HIV prevention efforts are being scaled up, and governments embrace the ICPD Programme of Action as an essential blueprint for realizing development goals.

More than half a million women die each year as a result of pregnancy-related complications. This brochure describes UNFPA's three-part strategy to prevent this tragic loss and some of the progress that is occurring in countries around the world. Improving maternal health is one of the eight internationally agreed on Millennium Development Goals and a top priority for UNFPA.