Child 6 Billion Presentation Kit
Resource Guide for The World of Child 6 Billion

The National Peace Corps Association (NPCA) and the Population Reference Bureau (PRB) have collaborated to bring you information about our world as we enter a new millennium with a record number of people living on Earth. This project is called The World of Child 6 Billion.

The World of Child 6 Billion focuses attention on population and development issues in a world with 6 billion people. The National Peace Corps Association is a membership organization of returned Peace Corps volunteers and former staff and friends of the Peace Corps. Its members strive to educate the U.S. public with a realistic and positive understanding of the world and the interdependency of its people. The World of Child 6 Billion project helps NPCA achieve their goal of "bringing the world back home."

The Population Reference Bureau is an educational organization dedicated to providing timely, objective information about population trends and their implications. PRB's audiences include the public, news media, students, educators, policymakers, and others working in the public interest. PRB is a nonprofit organization and is funded by individual and corporate contributions, foundation grants, government contracts, and the sales of PRB publications.

This Presentation Kit was made possible through support provided by the Office of Private and Voluntary Cooperation, Bureau for Humanitarian Response, U.S. Agency for International Development, under terms of Award No. FAO-A-00-98-00036. The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The World of Child 6 Billion project produced three primary products:

• A colorful six-page fold-out Discussion Guide
that highlights six basic needs of people worldwide plus examples of projects that are helping to meet these needs in Burkina Faso, Indonesia, the Dominican Republic, Botswana, Bolivia, and Laos. The Discussion Guide includes questions and answers to stimulate debate about resources and how they are used, and data on world population change. It is available from PRB or you can download it here.
• Lesson plans and other resources for teachers. The lesson plans were developed by classroom teachers and curriculum specialists to meet national learning standards. click here for lesson plans.
• The Presentation Kit, designed to provide additional detail on some of the issues presented in the Discussion Guide and to help place country-specific material in a larger context.

Presentation Kit

• Fourteen slides of data, most presented graphically
• "Talking points" and questions that pertain to each of the six issues introduced in the Discussion Guide — everyone's need for clean air, safe water, sound nutrition, good health, adequate housing, and education
• Special suggestions for those who have lived in developing countries, to help personalize the presentation
• Discussion suggestions for each topic
• Suggestions for follow-up activities or research
• A list of recommended resources for further exploration

Topics

1. Population Growth

Graphs:

• Population Size and Rate of Growth
• Population Growth Since World Population Reached 5 Billion

view guide

2. Air

Key Issues: Modes of transportation and their effect on air quality
Graph:

• Carbon Dioxide Emissions in Major Regions of the World

view guide

3. Water

Key Issues: Access to safe water and sanitation
Graphs:

• Access to Safe Water and Adequate Sanitation for Major Regions of the World
• Changes in Access to Safe Water

view guide

4. Nutrition

Key Issues: Food supply and levels of nutrition
Graphs:

• Food Supply and Change Since 1987
• Underweight Children in Major World Regions
• Underweight Children in Seven Countries Over Time

view guide

5. Health

Key Issues: Access to health care; immunization rates; causes of disease
Graph:

• Causes of Death Differ by Where People Live

view guide


6. Housing

Key Issues: Relative costs of housing construction; affordability of housing
Graph:

• Cost of Housing and Its Affordability

view guide



7. Education

Key Issues: Literacy; School enrollment
Graphs:

• Secondary School Enrollment Ratios in Major World Regions
• Secondary School Enrollment Ratios Over Time
• Adult Literacy Rates in Major World Regions
• Improvements in Adult Literacy Rates Since 1985

view guide

How to Use this Kit

This Presentation Kit is not a comprehensive reference on all the issues raised, but it does provide enough information and background to stimulate further ideas and discussion. However, we hope this resource will help increase your audience's knowledge about, and interest in, the world's economically less-developed countries and American's connection to them.

Presentation Tips

• Some people, especially school-aged children, find very large numbers hard to grasp. Find ways to make large numbers understandable and relevant to them. Here are two examples: If 6 billion 6-foot-tall people were stacked up head to foot, they would circle the Earth 274 times. If 6 billion sheets of paper were stacked up, they would reach a height of nearly 379 miles -- the approximate driving distance from Washington, D.C., to Cleveland, Ohio.
• To help your audience better understand the statistics and percentages given in your presentation, involve them in a visual activity. For example, to demonstrate 60 percent literacy, have three of every five people (that is, 60 percent) in your audience stand up, then indicate that they can read and write, while the others still seated cannot.
• For a well-integrated presentation, encourage discussion of how many of the issues are related. For example, communities with access to safe water tend to be much healthier.
• Try to relate these global issues locally by asking audience members about their own communities.
• Speakers are most engaging when they are talking about their own experiences. This personal connection brings information alive for the audience. Those who have lived in developing countries can take this opportunity to talk about what they encountered abroad. Examples are suggested under each topic.
• As you go through the various topics and slides, think of the life of the child whose birth brings world population to this record level. How will her or his life be affected by each of the six issues? Questions about "Child 6 Billion" are included throughout the outline.
• In working with some audiences (younger people in particular), consider asking if anyone has a new baby in their family or neighborhood. Ask for that baby's name, then continue to refer to Child 6 Billion by that baby's name as you go through the discussion: "If [David or Julia] were born in [_______], then . . .." This may add focus to the discussion and make it more meaningful to your audience.
• For presenters who have experience with a developing country, we encourage you to incorporate your own slides or photographs depicting examples of housing where you lived, water sources, foods or agriculture, health clinics and schools.
• Check to see if members of your audience have lived in developing countries. Ask them to point out those countries on a map.
• For the benefit of those who may not be able to see the slides clearly, mention what each axis refers to on each graph. For example, metric tons of carbon dioxide per person or percentage change since 1987.

Using the World Population Data Sheet

The World Population Data Sheet shows population data for 200 countries, world regions, subregions, and summaries for "more developed regions," "less developed regions," and "less developed regions excluding China" (because of that country's enormous demographic weight). A few graphs and an essay on population growth are included. Country size and population density per square mile is given on the Data Sheet.

Use the data sheet to "fill in the gaps" you may have regarding countries of special interest (such as countries where you or audience members have lived). Compare your country to others in the region. See where the growth in the population of less developed countries is projected to take place over the next 25 years.

A few interpretations of demographic measures follow:

• Life expectancy and infant mortality inform us about a population's overall health and provide clues to health conditions in a country.
• Total fertility rates (TFR) tell us how many children women are having today, on average. A TFR of 2.1 is considered "replacement level" fertility because that is the number needed for a couple to "replace" themselves in a population. Do not confuse replacement level fertility with zero population growth (which is reached only when the number of births plus immigration in a population each year equals the number of deaths plus emmigration). Zero population growth typically occurs several decades after replacement level fertility is reached.
• The percent of the population under age 15 indicates the relative size of the group that will enter the childbearing years over the next 15 years. This figure greatly influences future population growth.

Using the Population & Environment Dynamics Data Sheet

The Population & Environment Dynamics data sheet includes demographic and environment data for 67 countries and features brief essays on freshwater resources, cropland, and consumption. One graph compares the relative population size, energy production, and energy consumption of the developing countries, the countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and "transition economies." Environmental data presented in the table include cropland per person, annual renewable freshwater available per person, and carbon dioxide emissions per person. Note that developing countries account for three-fourths of the world's population, consume less than one-third of the world's commercial energy, yet produce over 40 percent of the world's commercial energy.

If a country of interest is included on the wallchart, compare its acres of cropland per person, for example, to neighboring countries, to the average for the region, or to the United States. Repeat this exercise using annual renewable freshwater available per person and using carbon dioxide emissions per person

Integration Activities

These activities help link population and the six other development issues included in this presentation kit to one another.

• People with higher education tend to be healthier. Develop hypotheses about why this relationship exists.

• Research the relationships between education and the other five topics. Do investments in girls' and boys' education reap similar benefits?

• Research the relationships between nutrition and health; access to safe water and health; housing conditions and health; and air quality and health.

• Does population growth affect air quality? Nutrition levels? Housing availability? Access to safe water? Access to health care? Access to formal education? Are any effects inevitable?

• Research organizations that work on these issues both in the U.S. and abroad. What sort of impact is their work having? Is it a good thing for Americans to be involved in development efforts in other countries?