Population Council focuses on women empowerment

Accra (Greater Accra) 14 July '99

The National Population Council (NPC) on Tuesday said women empowerment, girl-child education and unsafe abortion would be the core of its programme for the next millennium.

These, according to NPC, form part of the world population agenda formulated by the International Conference for Population and Development for the 21st Century.

Taking its turn at the meet-the-press series organised by the Ministry of Communications, the NPC said these could be achieved through strengthening linkages with government ministries, departments and agencies and non-governmental organisations to intensify public education.

Dr Richard Turkson, Executive Secretary of NPC, outlining the Council's strategies said partnerships with the public sector, donor agencies and NGOs have already produced a number of important policy guidelines for population control.

They include the medium-term health strategy, national reproductive health policy, draft national adolescent reproductive health and national communication strategy.

Dr Turkson said there has been significant progress in implementing these policies that have resulted in the enactment by parliament of the Children's Bill.

Similarly, there has been a sharp decline in fertility rates from 6.5 children per woman in 1960 to 4.5 in 1998, while the use of modern contraceptives have improved from five per cent in 1981 to 13 per cent as of now.

"The NPC has actively participated in mobilising the necessary commitment and support for the next population and housing census which, when completed, should equip our implementing partners with the much-needed data for integration of population factors into the development planning processes at all levels..."

In Ghana, the warning that rapid population growth could be an obstacle was ignored until 1969 when it adopted a comprehensive policy on measures to address the problem.

However, the absence of a well-articulated and co-ordinated institutional machinery to translate the various population objectives into action, contributed to the magnitude of the population issues confronting the nation today.