Cairo Conference's agenda reviewed: private sector and NGOs' support sought to reduce population growth

Sindh Population Secretary Mushtaq Memon has affirmed government's commitment to International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), held in Cairo in September 1994, and explained how the issues are being addressed. Addressing a seminar on "Cairo Call - are we listening" organised by Marine Stopes Society (MSS) at a local hotel here on Monday, he invited private sector and non-government organisations (NGOs) to have partnership with government for implementing the agenda effectively.
He said the Government wanted implementation of the ICPD agenda and had started media campaign in this regard, besides a seminar was organised, in which women MPAs, Government officials and other notables participated.
He said the Government wants to work at grass root level and for this purpose it requires the support of private sector and NGOs to achieve the target of reducing the population growth to 1.8 percent this year.
Secretary population said the Government has planned to establish basic population welfare units at union council levels and to hold the camps in rural areas through mobile health unit with the co-operation of concerned local bodies.
He told that, in this connection, Ulema Conference has also been called in March next so that the religious leaders could teach the people that the family health and population program is not against the teaching of Islam.
He said that so far only women were the target in family and population health programme but now men are also being approached for the same.
Dr Mehtab Karim from Aga Khan University reminded the group about the ICPD and commitments made by the global community including Pakistan during the Conference.
"At its 10th anniversary, we have not much to celebrate but rather serious reasons to think about the dismal situation of maternal health indicators," he said and adding "we need to raise awareness among common people to be hit by the tragedy of maternal deaths and not to accept it as a mere statistics of their fate."
"It is not an easy agenda but together we can make a difference," he added.
Dr Mahroo Humayun, DG Federal Population Ministry gave an overview of the Government programmes and policies to reflect the agenda to keep up with global communities.
She highlighted the challenges that Ministry faces due to resource constraints and operational issues.
Dr Sadia Jaffery, a noted gynaecologist, presented demographic facts on maternal health situation in Pakistan and drew policy makers' attention on the dismal situation.
She said: "Each woman that dies during the pregnancy and childbirth is a challenge for all of us; we must ask ourselves "are we doing enough to reverse this situation".
The women dying during childbirth is a silent emergency, happening outside the field of vision of policy makers.
"We need the reasons, we know the solutions and we can make the difference," she maintained.
Dr Ghouri from the MSS spoke about the HIV/AIDS threat, the fact that no country, nation or race is immune to it.
"The law on safe blood transfusion, reuse of syringes needs to be in place," he said emphasising on the fact that raising awareness on the issue is most important to change the people's behaviour about their sexual life and to the threat of HIV/AIDS.
Dr Nasreen Khan said as Pakistan is facing the ever largest "young people" boom in the history, therefore these initiatives can support youths and adolescents need to have advice and services on Reproductive Health issues.
Dr Yasmeen Sabeeh Qazi, Consultant MSS, said that Cairo Conference in 1994 was considered as a breakthrough in the development agenda of the world where numbers and targets were replaced by "choices" and "opportunities".
Global community realised that they could not achieve much on the rhetoric policies and programmes and the need is to have holistic approach to improve the lives of women, men and children.
Pakistan was one of the signatory of this global commitment along with other 184 countries. Despite these commitments, a sluggish approach and slow improvement was noted in the health indicators of Pakistan.
These were particularly true for "women health" and reflect negatively of any economic or development progress made, she added.