Two population experts have stressed the need for Ghana to reduce its population growth rate to a sustainable level to ensure sustainable socio-economic development.
The National Population Council (NPC) said the annual addition of 700,000 to Ghana’s population posed a huge challenge to development, ensuring quality of life for the population and some national policies such as the Ghana beyond aid.
The experts including the Executive Director of the National Population Council, Dr Leticia Appiah, were speaking at a press briefing marking the beginning of a weeklong activity towards the commemoration of this year’s World Population day in Accra Thursday (July 7, 2022).
Instituted by the United Nations Governing Council in 1989 and marked every July 11, World Population Day (WPD) to focus global attention on the urgency and importance of population issues to global, national and human development.
The commemoration calls for critical analysis of relevant population and its related issues that supports or hinder accelerated socio-economic development for national attention and action.
The global theme for this year’s commemoration is “A world of 8 billion: towards a resilient future for all, harnessing opportunities and ensuring rights and choices” while the national commemoration is on the theme “Prioritising rights and choices; harnessing opportunities, the road to a resilient future for all.”
Other local activities will include public forums on demystifying family planning and contraceptive use among others.
Below is a copy of the address of Dr Leticia Appiah
2022 WORLD POPULATION DAY CELEBRATION, STATEMENT BY DR LETICIA ADELAIDE APPIAH EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NATIONAL POPULATION COUNCIL, 7TH TH JULY, 2022
- Honourable Deputy Minister of information Madam Fatimatu Abubakar, UNFPA Country Representative Mr. Barnabas Yisa, Representative from the UN Systems, CSOs and MDAs, the Media, Invited Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen.
- It is a great honour to be invited to deliver this statement as part of the 2022 World Population Day celebrations organized by the National Population Council and its partners.
- Globally, 11th July was set aside for the celebration of annual World Population Day (WPD) in 1989 by the Governing Council of the United Nations in all countries. The celebration calls for critical analysis of relevant population and its related issues that supports or hinders accelerated socio-economic development for national attention and action.
- The global theme for this year’s celebration is “A world of 8 billion: towards a resilient future for all, harnessing opportunities and ensuring rights and choices” and our national theme is ‘Prioritizing rights and choices; harnessing opportunities, the road to a resilient future for all.’
- My presentation will be brief on selected contributors to population growth globally and mainly on Africa and Ghana’s contribution. For Africa and Ghana, my statement will highlight the need to prioritize rights and choices in addressing unmet need for family planning, child marriage and teen pregnancy in line with our national theme and some recommendations.
- Globally, United Nations World Population Prospects recorded 139,821,086 births and 60,119,439 deaths in 2021. Europe welcomed 4,047,432 births and recorded 5, 186,787 deaths whilst Africa had 49, 034,104 births and 13, 378,519 deaths. Nigeria our big brother, welcomed 8,424, 582 and buried 2, 777,541 according to the United Nations Department of Economics and Social Affairs, Population Division in 2021. In Ghana, our births stood at 1,053,400 and deaths 288,378. The difference between births and deaths is the net increase Europe’s population decreased by over a million people and Africa’s increased by over 35 million in 2021 alone with Ghana contributing over 700,000.
- The world is hitting 8 billion people; whilst Europe is contributing to slowing down the population growth down to a sustainable level, Africa is contributing to its accelerated growth also in an unsustainable fashion.
- Below replacement level fertility (2.1) in Europe ultimately translates into population with fewer young skilled workforce and a larger proportion of older people which poses a threat for economic growth and the maintenance of social welfare systems such as pensions and healthcare.
- In order for European countries to address its negative population growth rate, many countries in European Union have instituted some social policies promoting fertility, increased age of retirement and organized migration of skilled workforce. Additionally, they invented automation and other technologies such as auto-pilot cars, computerized scans and algorithms that respond to customer service inquiries substitute for some activities humans were previously performing to increase productivity and improve lives.
- On the other hand, fertility rates above replacement level in Africa and Ghana drive fast population growth on the continent and in Ghana thus constantly contributing to a large proportion of young people and fewer skilled workforce posing challenges with provision of quality healthcare resources, relevant education, employment as well as sustainable economic growth.
- With high unemployment and majority of people in the informal sector, automation and the use of current technologies could worsen the unemployment situation. A report by McKinsey Global Institute in 2017 revealed that about half the activities people are paid to perform globally could theoretically be automated by 2030 using current technologies.
- Africa and Ghana’s high population growth rate are in part supported by high rates of teenage pregnancies, high levels of child marriage and high unmet need for family planning with its associated high social, environmental and economic costs. For Africa and that matter Ghana to reduce its population growth rate to sustainable levels, it is important for the leaders to recognize the established fact that reproductive health policy is a vital economic policy and so respecting reproductive health rights and choices of all especially girls and women should be of high priority.
- Prioritizing rights and choices mean providing all with adequate sexual reproductive health information and services to facilitate informed decision making in their fertility choices efficiently for their own good as well as the wellbeing of others. This will not only slow Africa’s and Ghana’s population growth rate down significantly, it is fundamental to bridging the inequality and inequity gaps in health, education, employment within and between genders which is a necessary condition for sustainable development.
- One of the consequences of lack of prioritization of reproductive rights and choices is high unmet need for family planning. Unmet need for family planning measures the gap between woman’s reproductive intentions and their contraceptive behavior. Data from the 2014 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (GDHS), unmet need for family planning stands at 30%. Reducing unmet need for family planning will reduce the high levels of unintended pregnancies, unsafe abortions, maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality with accompanied health and financial benefits and a reduction in the population growth rate.
- Another manifestation of the lack of prioritization of reproductive rights and choices for cultural reasons is child marriage and other teen pregnancies which supports high growth rate. Child marriage disproportionately affects young girls with far reaching consequences that negatively impacts not only the lives of children who are married, but also the lives of those around them and the nation at large. When girls marry young before their minds and bodies are fully developed, they get pregnant before they become adults.
- Pregnancy is number one cause of mortality among girls aged 15-19 worldwide and child marriage/ teen pregnancies reinforce the gendered nature of poverty whose impact extends throughout a girl’s adult life into the next generation.
- Prioritizing sexual and reproductive rights and choices of women in Ghana and Africa by decisively tackling child marriage, teen pregnancies and unmet need for family planning will improve maternal and child health and well-being at a reduced health, social, environmental and economic costs. This will significantly reduce the unsustainable level of population growth rate in Africa and Ghana. It will help produce fewer healthier young people and increase the proportion of skilled workforce leading to accelerated socio-economic development. It is important that policy makers, implementers and takers appreciate the health, social, environmental and economic benefits of prioritizing reproductive health and services. This in my opinion will help bridge the inequality gaps, improve the health of citizens, free up funds for relevant quality education and skill acquisition and make it easier to build a resilient future for all.
- Child marriage, teen pregnancies and unmet need puts strain on family and national income whiles increasing family and national expenditure mainly on consumption to the disadvantage of production.
- Ignoring these seemingly harmless small issues is akin to the little foxes that spoil the vine in the bible. Songs of Solomon 2 vrs 15. Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom.
- In conclusion, as the world population hits 8 billion, for Africa to reduce its population growth rate to sustainable levels for national development, and create the Africa we want and Ghana beyond Aid, I suggest a concerted effort at reducing or eliminating child marriage, teen pregnancy and unmet need for family planning should attract attention and commitment from all stakeholders especially the media, the economists, the traditional, religious and political leadership.
For sustainable socio-economic development of Ghana and Africa, sexual and reproductive health policy should and must be seen and treated as an economic policy and a security policy.
Thank you for your attention.
