I stay away from "deeper meanings" as you finish up arriving at an answer from the results rather than the source
Population control -- look at the life cycle of our mice in the wheat belt area, good crop, good conditions they breed in the hundreds of thousands in a very short time, because their death rate is so high they want some to survive, Africa very high numbers of babies due to so many naturally die, so nature does take a hand in the control of the population and when we alter and manipulate the system it can and will go haywire, because we "the smart people" stop the babies from dying but don't do anything about the resultant overpopulation
As to the authorities in the poorer countries they have little to work with as far as power is concerned so a huge population is a good method for them to increase their personal power
