Organisations celebrate World Population Day in Port Moresby

Health Watch

OFFICIALS from government departments, companies, non-governmental organisations and donor partners celebrated World Population Day on Tuesday in Port Moresby.
A breakfast meeting heard that family planning is vital for shaping lives and strengthening livelihoods across Papua New Guinea.
The theme of the World Population Day this year was “Family planning, empowering people, developing nations”.
Partners who were represented at the celebrations included the Department of National Planning and Monitoring, Department of Health, Oil Search Foundation, Marie Stopes, the UN and senior diplomats in Port Moresby.
Access to safe, voluntary family planning is a human right. It is also central to gender equality and women’s empowerment, and is a key factor in reducing poverty.
Investments in making family planning available also bring economic and other gains that can drive development forward.
Oil Search Foundation places a strong emphasis on family planning activities.
The foundation acknowledged the universal call to action and in response to the high demand from provincial partners, to address rapidly increasing population growth, entered into a partnership to help Marie Stopes PNG increase the availability of family planning services in the community.
Marie Stopes has now been working with the foundation for a year, undertaking multi-day outreach to some of the most remote villages in Southern Highlands and Gulf
In the first quarter of 2017, Marie Stopes provided awareness to 1300 people and facilitated 281 family planning interventions in 34 villages in Kutubu and Kikori districts.