Florence Hagan, regional manager of the Greater Accra population, urged the government to give priority to the rights and choices in reproductive health in order to control population growth in the country.
She said that she was tackling reproductive health problems such as family planning, marriage and early childbirth and pregnancies in adolescent girls would help achieve the third objective of sustainable development.
Hagan said that demographic growth, especially in the Grand Accra region, had exerted strong pressure on limited resources and infrastructure, which called for urgent action.
She said it to Accra during a press briefing to commemorate World Population Day (JMP) of this year on the national theme: “Give priority to rights and choices; Use opportunities, the way to a resilient future for all.
The world theme of this year’s JMP: “A world of 8 billion: towards a resilient future for all, exploit opportunities and guarantee rights and choices”, seeks to draw attention to global population growth that should achieve About eight billion by the end of this year.
The world event is commemorated on July 11.
The population census of 2021 revealed that the population of the Grand Accra increased from 4,010,054 in 2010 to 5,455,692 in 202.
This figure made of the most populated accra in Ghana, exceeding the Ashanti region since 1970.
The Grand Accra region, she said, became overcrowded due to the high level of immigration from other regions and immigration from neighboring countries, which required urgent attention.
The 2014 demographic and health survey shows that the fertility synthetic index is 2.8 children per woman in the country.
Ms. Hagan said the fertility rate attested to the fact that the age structure of young people in the region was largely the result of migration and urbanization.
“We must worry about the young population of Ghana because it represents the economic workforce that stimulates the economy,” she said.
It said that Ghana, to reach a demographic dividend, demanded that the country understand the size and distribution of its population, its structure by current age and projected and the pace of population growth.
The situation, she said, means that national needs must be accompanied by a short, medium and long-term investment sequence which guarantee the rights of all citizens to access the development sectors.
She called on the competent authorities to add their votes to promote policies, programs and laws aimed at putting an end to children’s marriage, reducing pregnancies among adolescent girls and supporting investments based on convincing data and centered on girls in order to give them information on their health rights.
Dr. Farida Njelba Abdulai, acting assistant director of Greater Accra, Public Health, Ghana Health Service, said the world population reaching eight billion, it was necessary to give priority to the number of children to have for appropriate care.
“As a health service, we work to guarantee that family planning services are safe, acceptable, affordable, efficient and geographically accessible for all,” she said.
To improve financial access, she declared that the national health insurance authority has approved this year the use of the authority card to access family planning services in order to increase the use of these services .
Some of the participants urged the leaders of the National Population Council to liaise with religious leaders to educate the public on reproductive issues, in particular on family planning.
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