World Press to access Ghana population control measures

Accra (Greater Accra), 22nd March '99 -

A team of international journalists is to visit the country to see measures that Ghana has put in place to ensure a stable popuplation growth rate in future, Mr Moses Mokassa, Ghana Representative of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), said on Monday. This, he said, has been made possible because Ghana's facilitators at the recent international conference on population held in The Hague, Netherlands, were able to present a true picture of what is happening in the country. Mr Mokassa was speaking at a group discussion on Ghana's Country Report on Five Years' Implementation of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) programme of Action and the Hague Forum at a day's seminar in Accra. He said for Ghana to achieve its goal of population reduction, documented in Vision 2020, there is the need for the National Population Council (NPC) to create a data bank. It should monitor and evaluate the work of its implementing agencies and all Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in the field of population activities. Dr Richard Turkson, Executive Director of NPC Secretariat, called for drastic change in the situation where the developed world determines the prices of raw materials produced by developing countries. This, he said, would ensure that developing countries generate enough resources for population activities and meet their target of population reduction. Dr Turkson said donors pledged further assistance to programmes and activities aimed at reducing the growing population in Africa. Governments of developing countries, on the other hand, realised the need to use funds carefully to enable them to sustain population activities in their countries.