Integrated Efforts for a better Pakistan

According to “Population and Development Indicators for Asia and the Pacific 2006” by UN South Asia region, comprising 7 countries (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka), is one of the most populous regions in the world having a total population of 1.46 billion, which constitutes one fifth of the world’s population today. It is also one of the regions experiencing a high population growth rate of 1.6 % per annum. The situation will further worsen with the doubling of the population size in four decades at the current rate of growth unless this is moderated, which depends to a large extent on the improvement of reproductive health and family planning situation.
The high population growth rate will adversely affect the economic growth rate and overall quality of life of the people as the countries will find it difficult to save and invest for future development by meeting the current needs of the growing population. Adverse effect of high population growth is already seen in terms of high incidence of poverty and malnutrition and deteriorating environmental degradation. And this will further worsen with the growing population. Poor reproductive health condition also contributes to high maternal and infant deaths
Government of Pakistan hosted a two day International Conference on “Best Practices For Scaling-up Reproductive Health And Family Planning Programmes And Reducing Maternal And Neonatal Mortality”. Ministry of Population Welfare deserves due acknowledgement to initiate the cause and invite all regional key players to a single platform. The conference will help promote South-South cooperation in learning from each other by sharing best practices and lessons learnt in the area of health, especially in reproductive health, family planning and maternal and neonatal health. This will assist in fast tracking the population program of Pakistan by increasing the demand and coverage of family planning services as well as facilitating the achievement of Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5. The conference envisaged reviewing the evidence based best practices in different aspects of RH/FP and maternal and neonatal health programmes including policy formulation, legislation, program strategies and interventions, family planning technologies as well as the role of civil society, including enlisting the support of opinion leaders especially religious and community leaders.
Pakistan being the sixth populous country with more than 153.45 million population needs to implement strong policies to achieve better economic and social indicators. Presence of the federal minister Ch. Shahbaz Hussain and federal secretary Shahzado Shaikh with active participation of national and international partners is an evidence of their strong commitment towards the cause.

—NISHAT RIAZ