PIP: This work describes the evolution of population policies and attitudes toward them in the Sahel countries since the 1974 World Population Conference. Recommendations of several important international population conferences in which the Sahelian countries participated are then listed. The Bucharest Conference is widely regarded as the 1st serious attempt at coordinated action on population. The divergent approaches of the developed and developing countries toward population phenomena became obvious at the Conference. The developed countries of the north expected the less developed countries of the south to pledge greater efforts at controlling demographic growth, which they viewed as impeding economic development. The countries of the south on the other hand saw the problem as 1 of unequal distribution of wealth. Many African countries also believed their economic growth would be accelerated by the additional workers they would eventually gain through population growth. Reduced population growth in this view would result from rather than contributing to development. Despite these disagreements, Conference participants adopted the World Population Plan of Action which made 5 recommendations including establishment and promotion of family planning education and services. Numerous countries began to pay greater attention to population variables in their development planning after Bucharest. The Sahel countries participated in the Arusha Conference, a July 1984 meeting of African countries preceding the World Population Conference in Mexico City, and in the Mexico City Conference. The Arusha Conference adopted the "Program of Action of Kilimanjaro Concerning African Population and Autonomous Development", which contained 16 recommendations to governments to recognize the interdependence of demographic factors and development. By the 1984 Mexico City Conference, various events such as the drought, chronic economic problems, and rapid population growth combined to bring about a change in the positions of the Sahel countries. Only Senegal and Gambia described their fertility levels as unacceptably high; the remaining Sahel countries were much more concerned with very high mortality rates. The Mexico City Conference adopted 2 recommendations calling for adoption of mutually supportive demographic and development policies by governments, and for provision of sufficient resources to allow realization of demographic objectives. After Arusha and Mexico City, the Sahel countries held several conferences and seminars to study their demographic problems and the relationships between population variables and development. 1 such conference produced the "Program of Action of Ndjamena", considered the most important regional reference document for development of population policies and programs. The persistence of high fertility and mortality rates and of economic crisis in the Sahel have prompted continuing attention to population variables.