Much has been learned about population problems over the past two decades, especially with regard to the existing interrelationships between population and development. The various international population conferences held since the 1974 Bucharest meeting are proof enough. Participants of each conference adopted resolutions on population and development describing the desired path toward sustainable human development. More recently, the Ouagadougou Program of Action (PAO) was adopted in October 1997, at the first conference of Population Ministers of the member countries of the Permanent Interstate Committee Against Drought in the Sahel (CILSS). The program proposes measures to implement in the areas of population and sustainable development in the Sahel, such as the fight against poverty, improving the condition of women, development and education especially of girls, job promotion, access to reproductive and sexual health services, food security, the protection and conservation of natural resources, and accelerating the pace of economic and social development. Now, 2 years after the Ouagadougou conference, the PAO is being effectively implemented, with all CILSS countries except Guinea-Bissau having explicit population policies in place. Moreover, each country has established institutional frameworks to transform the consensus achieved in Cairo and Ouagadougou into concrete action. Meetings are occasionally held with key parties to monitor the implementation of action programs.