Developing countries risk suffering more from the effects of the current global financial crises because of the rapid population growth they are experiencing, an expert has warned.

Sara Seims, chair of the Development Committee of the Population Association of America and a member of UNESCO's Global Advisory Group on HIV and Sex Education, told Xinhua in an interview on Tuesday that governments need to urgently address the rapid population growth.

"The rapid population growth is going to worsen the food crisis. The more mouths you have to feed the harder it is to feed them," she said while attending a two-day international forum on population and development that opened here on Monday.

The forum was organized by the Partners in Population and Development, an inter-governmental organization, which brought together 23 developing countries.

Seims cited the case of Ethiopia where the government provides food to 3 million people who face starvation as 2 to 3 million Ethiopia babies are born annually, which makes it hard to break the starvation cycle.

She further warned that whereas Africa is not the major emitter of greenhouse gases, it will suffer most from the effects of climate change.

"If you have a very rapidly growing population and you are experiencing the effects of climate change, it is going to be harder for you to ensure the health of your citizens, enough food and enough education for them," she said.

Seims also dismissed advocacy by some African leaders who have called for rapid population growth to provide the continent with a huge market.

Studies have shown that China, Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia are able to economically develop because they check their population growth which has led to good health services, better education and a much more productive workforce, according to her.

Seims called on developing countries to adopt deliberate family planning polices if they are to reduce the effects of population explosion.

(Xinhua News Agency November 26, 2008)