ISLAMABAD: Population growth is a cross-cutting issue for the country which is contributing to low development prospects.
Our country needed more policy dialogue and debate based on research and evidence to deal with the problem, Balochistan Governor Muhammad Khan Achakzai said at the concluding session of a two-day conference titled “50 years of Pakistan’s population programme, setting strategic priorities and programme direction under Vision 2025”, organised by the Population Association of Pakistan (PAP) in collaboration with Bahria University, Islamabad.
“Vision 2025, envisaged by the government, has already prioritised social development, institutional and governance reforms, investing in youth and poverty reduction as some of its key focus areas,” he said.
The governor said decisions about family size, birth spacing, choice of contraception, age at marriage, secondary schooling for girls and access to services for maternal and child health were natural and relevant components of family planning programmes.
“Pakistan is in need of national consensus on important issues. The national and provincial leadership is grappling with major events, which call for extraordinary solutions, clarity and courage. At the same time, we must also watch out for demographic pressure.”
Bahria University Rector Vice Admiral (retd) Shahid Iqbal urged the need for better planning to meet the challenges being faced by Pakistan.
PAP President Shahnaz Wazir Ali highlighted the recommendations of the two-day conference, saying that the government should constitute a national commission on population and development with full representation of the provinces to provide key strategic direction, track and assess progress, identify evidence-based successful family planning initiatives to achieve set goals.
“The government should set up a tripartite fund, financed annually by the federal, provincial governments and development partners, to fund district governments to adopt state initiatives for family planning,” she said while highlighting one of the recommendations.
The federal and provincial governments must ensure that all health facilities provide safe and accessible client-centered family planning services, it was recommended.
Focus should be paid on birth spacing, provision of contraceptives, besides increasing the number of skill birth attendants and community midwives.
It was also recommended to involve men in family planning through behaviour change communication and in service delivery.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 20th, 2014.
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