PIP: In April, 1994, at UN headquarters in New York, delegates from almost 200 countries and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) negotiated a Programme of Action to be ratified following more debate at the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo in September. A sizable consensus emerged for this Preparatory Committee III (PrepCom) meeting. It has an expanded view of population policy that centers more on meeting individual needs and less on achieving strict demographic goals. Thus, it focuses on the unmet need for reproductive health services (family planning, basic women's health care, and services linked to sexually transmitted diseases). It considers women's status and female education as being important themselves as well as key determinants of fertility rates. Disagreement over access to abortion services and reproductive health services for adolescents remain. Unlike earlier world conferences, most of the world is working towards a consensus, while the Vatican and just a few small countries (Benin, Malta, Honduras, and Nicaragua) object to these services. Some topics that US National Conference of Catholic Bishops did not want in the Programme of Action were references to reducing the incidence of unsafe abortion, promoting condom use to prevent HIV/AIDS, and even safe motherhood. The US and Japan have committed sizable increases in population assistance. Some European countries are concerned about how their contributions would be allocated. US Undersecretary for Global Affairs and a mostly female 23-member US delegation attended PrepCom III. Most of the US delegates were from NGOs. Many country delegates were women. Many countries accepted recommendations of the women's caucus. The US's priorities are promotion of universal access to the full range of high quality family planning and reproductive health services; increasing women's status; child survival promotion; serving adolescent needs; augmenting the role and responsibility of men in reproductive health; strengthening the family; and sustainable development.