TEXT: The World Population Day 2021 reminds us about the significance of balancing the population growth in a way that each individual family makes right choices so that they would match number of children with resources required for their health and education needs. This is the essence of the Recommendations of the Council of Common Interest (CCI) forwarded by the Supreme Court of Pakistan under a suomoto in 2018.

Over the past five years, Sindh has implemented FP2020 commitments. In this regard, the province has been at the forefront by developing its Costed Implementation Plan (CIP) on Family Planning. The CIP at the Population Welfare Department (PWD) had spearheaded a reform process with its major focus on integration of health, population sectors and synergizing interventions of partners. Data shows that between 2013 and 2018 Sindh has increased the Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR) upto 4 percentage points in rural areas. During the period upto the year 2020, more than 1 million Additional Users of modern contraceptive methods have been generated.

As per CCI Recommendations, goals on CPR; Total Fertility Rate (TFR) and Population Growth have been set for Pakistan. Based on experiences of FP2020 process and keeping in view the CCI goals, Sindh has embarked upon development of “FP2030 Roadmap” and consequently revision of CIP. The “FP2030 roadmap” will aim at increasing CPR by 50% in 2030.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021