
Dr Leticia Adelaide Appiah, Executive Director of the National Population Council, addresses the press

As part of measures aimed at commemorating the 2022 World Population Day celebration, and sustaining Ghana’s population growth rate, the National Population Council (NPC) has stressed the need to prioritise sexual and reproductive rights and choices of women in the country by decisively tackling child marriage, teen pregnancies and unmet need for family planning.
This, according to NPC, will not only significantly reduce the country’s population growth rate to sustainable levels, but also improve maternal and child health and wellbeing at a reduced health, social, environmental and economic costs.
The Executive Director of National Population Council, Dr Leticia Adelaide Appiah, made the call during a press briefing yesterday at the Information Ministry.
According to her, prioritising reproductive rights would help produce fewer healthier young people, and increase the proportion of skilled workforce leading to accelerated socio-economic development.
“It is important that policymakers, implementers and takers appreciate the health, social, environmental and economic benefits of prioritising 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,” Dr Appiah noted.
Priority key
The NPC Executive Director further indicated that Ghana’s high population growth rate is in part supported by high rates of teenage pregnancies, high levels of child marriage and high unmet need for family planning.
To help reduce the population surge, she stressed the need for leaders to recognise that reproductive health policy remained a vital economic policy.
“Respecting reproductive health rights and choices of all, especially girls and women, should be prioritised of high priority. Prioritising 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,” she defined.
Doing this, in her view, would bridge the inequality and inequity gaps in health, education, employment within and between genders necessary condition for sustainable development.
Lack of priority
Dr Adelaide Appiah pointed out that the lack of prioritisation of reproductive rights had resulted in high unmet need for family planning, child marriage and other teen pregnancies.
“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 minimise 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. When girls marry young before their minds and bodies are fully developed, they get pregnant before they become adults,” she added.
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) country representative, Barnabas Yisa, disclosed that the world is hitting eight billion people. According to him, Europe is contributing to its reduction in a sustainable level, with Africa contributing to its rise in an unsustainable fashion.
To this end, he emphasised the need for Ghana to reconsider the trajectory of its population growth, urging government to invest in the welfare of the citizenry, be it education, health among others. “What is the growth rate of current Ghana’s population? Ghana needs to learn from global and neighbouring populations. UNFPA stands with Ghana to raise the quality of life of the population,” he assured.
WPD
Globally, July 11, is 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 Ghana’s national theme is “Prioritising rights and choices; harnessing opportunities, the road to a resilient future for all”.