13th annual conference on 'Population Wellbeing: A Development Imperative'

Major demographic and socio-economic challenges facing Pakistan and strategies required to tackle them were discussed at the Population Association of Pakistan's 13th Annual Conference on 'Population Wellbeing: A Development Imperative'.
Questions such as: Can Pakistan progress despite the challenges it faces in term of rapid population growth? were also discussed at the conference. The inaugural session was held at the Institute of Business Administration, Karachi. The guest of honour at the inaugural session was Muhammad Javed Malik, Federal Secretary Population and Planning, Planning and Development, Islamabad. The conference was being attended by the high ranking officers including four vice chancellors of reputed Pakistani institutions.
Muhammad Javed Malik said that concerted steps were needed to accelerate Pakistan's growth indicators and reverse the negative trends which were affecting the welfare of its population. He said efforts were required to reverse the stagnation of contraceptive rate, improve access to services that will allow us to improve health outcomes and wellbeing of our people who can play a meaningful role in our development efforts.
He said that in order to achieve developments goals economic growth must be sustained and that could only happen if population growth was checked. He stressed the need for sustained political commitment so that the population issue remained a priority. He mentioned some of the measures that the government was taking for population welfare. The quality of services being offered, especially to women in the rural areas was improved.
Ms Shahida Azfar President, Population Association of Pakistan, Islamabad outlined the objectives of the conference. She said that urgent steps were needed to reverse the negative impact of a rapidly growing population that impedes developmental efforts degrades the environment and dilutes economic gain. She stressed the need for adopting a holistic and multisectoral approach to deal with the population issue.
The Dean and Director Institute of Business Administration, Karachi Dr Ishrat Husain formally welcomed the guests and signalled the start of the two-day conference. He said that the IBA students the future leaders of Pakistan must be well conversant with the impact of a rapidly growing population on the economy, national development and wellbeing of the people. He said that Pakistan economy would have been maintained at level of increase by four times plus since the 1960's if the population growth rate had been increasing by 2 percent instead of 3 percent. He said the political impetus to lower population growth seen in the sixties must be reinvigorated. He stressed the need for enhancing accountability at all level of governments to ensure that family planning services are universally available.
Established in 2000, the Population Association of Pakistan plays a key role in sharing knowledge with stakeholders, keeping them informed and facilitating their professional development. A cross-section of health professionals, including stakeholders, members of civil society, academics, from Pakistan and abroad, and most importantly, government functionaries were attending the conference that is expected to come up with important policy recommendations as it will help the government to decide upon its future direction.