Pakistan lags behind regional countries in meeting the challenge of lowering the population growth due to the lacks of access to quality family planning services in both the private and public sector.
This was stated by Caretaker Federal Minister for Health, Ejaz Rahim while addressing the participants of the launching ceremony of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) five-year flagship program on child spacing called 'Family Advancement for Life and Health' (FALAH), costing $60 million, here on Tuesday.
Caretaker Federal Minister for Population Welfare, A.J Khan, Peter Donaldson, President Population Council and Zeba. A. Sattar, Country Director Population Council Pakistan, were also present on the occasion. Ejaz said that Pakistan's population is currently growing at a rate of 1.9 percent and it is expected to be doubled in the next 38 years.
"The growing population has serious implications for all sectors of the country, especially for economy and social development. Couples need easier access to spacing services that are responsive to their circumstances", he said.
"In many parts of our country women have to travel long distances to reach family planning centres. However, when they do attain these, the poor quality products are offered at these facilities, which fail to meet their reproductive health needs", said Ejaz.
He further said it have also been observed that people are concerned about the possible side affects of contraceptives and due to this fear they are either not using them, resulting in an unmet need for family planning and resorting to inducing abortions for unwanted pregnancies.
"In Pakistan, nearly a million abortions are being carried out to avoid unwanted pregnancies. This alone is an important contributor to maternal mortality. Besides, it is of deep concern that the Reproductive Health issue is not prominent in our medical curriculum, which should be", the health minister emphasised.
There is a dire need to have more and more investment, public and private partnership and last but not the least the close monitoring and evaluation of projects in the country in order to achieve set goals, he added.
"I hope that FALAH will help in improving the quality of family planning services in the country by removing barriers, improving understanding, increasing knowledge and improving access to quality of care in both private and public sector", said Ejaz. Speaking on the occasion A.J. Khan said that it cannot be overstated that population issues play a crucial role in the development equation, which require a concentrated approach to strike a balance between population increase and resources needed for sustainable development.
"The government is conscious of the impact of the alarming population growth rate on the development of all social sectors as well as efforts for poverty reduction and improving the quality of life of our people. In fact in recent time we have placed population stabilisation as one of the key components in the process of structural change", he said.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Zeba Sattar informed the said that according to international studies Pakistan's health indicators are among the worst in the world. For every 100,000 children born, 350 to 500 mothers die annually. More then 72 infants die for every 1,000 live births, the mortality rate of children under-five are 94 deaths per 1,000 live births. "Deaths among new-borns, infants and children have not decreased in the past ten years", she said.
Talking about FALAH, she said that it will diversify family planning services in the country and would work in 20 districts across the country. The support of the project is the part of the $1.5 billion in aid that the US Government is providing to Pakistan over five years to improve economic growth, education, health and governance, sectors.
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