By Kamara Osman
Faisal, GNA
Tamale, July 16, GNA
– The National Population Council (NPC) has called on government to institute
family planning as a human right policy in order to achieve the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs), especially goal four.
In a statement to
mark this year’s World Population Day, the Northern Regional Secretariat of the
NPC said, the Council believed it would not be a misplaced priority if the
government considered family planning as a human right and commit to ensuring
that human rights were incorporated in the Family Planning policies.
The statement said
“in-fulfillment of the elements of right to health, government should make
family planning services available, accessible and of good quality, whiles
clients find them acceptable. It is therefore important to make family planning
a household name in Ghana and Northern Region”.
The statement said
parents have the basic human rights to determine freely and responsible the
number and spacing of their children linked to the SDGs, particularly
eradicating extreme poverty, hunger, achieving universal primary education,
promoting gender equality, empowering women and ensuring environmental
sustainability.
It said the Northern
Region has a total population of 2,468,557 comprising 1,229,887 males and
1,249,574 females with teenage pregnancy as a major challenge.
The statement
indicated that “In the Region 2.2 per cent of women aged 15-19 were pregnant
with first child whiles the maiden age at first marriage is 18.7, the lowest in
the country”.
The statement noted
that, the population of the Northern Region had remained high in the three
count of census held in 1984, 2000 and 2010 increasing from 1,164,583 to
1,820,806 and to 2,468,557 respectively.
“The growth rates
have also increased persistently from 2.8 in 2000 to 2.9 in 2010. In 1960, the
Northern Region recorded a population of 531,573 and by 2010 the figure rose to
2,479,461, this means that in 50 years we have added 947,888 to our population,”
it stated.
The statement said
with the fertility rate of 2.9, the Region’s population was likely to hit seven
million by 2040, which would hinder efforts by government to bring economic
development and improve the quality of life.
The statement also
called for efforts to reduce the high population rate to bring about
sustainable development in the Region.
Highlighting on the
national theme: “Family planning is a human right an imperative to
sustainable economic development”, and stressed need for focusing on
reducing fertility rate and number of dependency on working groups to ensure
rapid economic growth.
The statement said
“A high population growth means a high economic expenditure. The several
efforts of government at achieving a projected growth in the economy by 3.8 per
cent maybe challenged if the population continues to grow so rapidly. Family
planning should therefore take centre stage in all our developmental
programmes”.
The World Population
Day is marked on July 11 every year since 1987 to focus attention on the role
and the importance of population as a factor in the development processes.
GNA