News
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Pakistan vows to strike balance between population, resources
UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan, which is on its way to having a large advantageous workforce but at the same time is likely to face poverty reduction challenges, is striving to strike a balance between population and resources under a new policy, a senior government official informed the United Nations.
Planning and Development Division Secretary, Sohail Ahmad, told a session of the Commission on Population and Development that with 175 million inhabitants, Pakistan is the sixth most populous country in the world and is undergoing a demographic transition. “Ours is a country undergoing demographic transition with about 36 percent of the population below the age of 15 and about 3.8 percent over the age of 65.
The opportunities provided by our demographic transition are accompanied by challenges of reducing poverty, achieving sustainable economic development and slowing population growth,” Sohail Ahmad, leading the Pakistani delegation said.
Pakistan is in the process of finalising its latest National Population policy initiated in 2010 in consultation with all stakeholders. “It seeks to attain a balance between population and resources and its goals are set out in three major areas of the ICPD, which includes expanded access to education, particularly for girls, reduced mortality rates and increased access to quality reproductive health care services and family planning.”
In formulating this population policy, the government has relied on best practices and experience gained in the past.
The policy lays down a broad framework to achieve economic development and raise the quality of life of the general population by focusing on family planning within the framework of reproductive healthcare, especially in rural areas. The government will concentrate on raising awareness, strengthening advocacy, building alliances and renewing commitment at the national level, as well as strengthening national capacity for monitoring and evaluation of goals and targets by encouraging national debate on specific priority areas.
The secretary told the gathering that the government has taken major initiatives to improve reproductive health status with special attention to maternal health particularly in the context of ICPD and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In this regard, the following achievements and developments are noteworthy:
Adoption of the National Reproductive Health Service Package in 2001, to promote family planning within the comprehensive framework of reproductive health. This has brought down the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) from 4.1 percent to 3.6 percent.
As per Pakistan’s latest Demographic and Health Survey (2006-07), the Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR) has declined from 33 percent (2003) to 30 percent (2007). This survey also shows that there has been a substantial rise in knowledge about different family planning methods and 96 percent of currently married women are aware of at least one method of contraception as compared to 78 percent in 1991. app
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk