UN: Family planning is vital for development

FAMILY planning is crucial for a country’s development, United Nations Population Fund (UNFA) representative Koffi Kouame says.
He said this at the World Population Day event in Port Moresby which was celebrated with the theme “Family planning, empowering people, developing nations” highlighted the importance of family planning.
“The right of women and girls to decide freely on whether and when and how many children to have, empower them to complete their education, be more productive in their jobs,” Kouame said.
“Family planning, therefore, is critical to the sustainable development goal of ending poverty.
“It is also key to achieving other goals, such as ending hunger as well as promoting good health and gender equality.”
He said family planning services helped decrease the money spent on pregnancy-related care and increased economic growth while promoting good health and gender equality.
United Nations resident coordinator Roy Trivedy said it was important for different sectors to take the agenda forward.
“It is vital that we protect our world population. I know that UNPFA is providing support and Government is providing three times that support,” Trivedy said.
“All of us need to join them to make sure the issues around protection of family planning services and there is enough resources around budget in this areas, without enough resources we are not going to make progress in this service.”