PNG must plan to cater for young population: United Nations

AS the global population looks to reach eight billion by November, Papua New Guinea must start planning on catering for the bulk of its population which includes young people below the age of 25, says United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) country representative for PNG Marielle Sanders.
Speaking at a media conference on Wednesday, Sanders said the majority 60 per cent were as a result of more births and less deaths which would have an impacted both the economy and health sectors.
“As part of the Asia Pacific region, we collectively contribute to half of the global population as we have high number of births and low number of deaths,” she said.
“A third of all the women in the developing regions give birth at an early age and nearly half of the births are by adolescents so women give birth to five children before they reach 40, posing health risks to both mother and child,” she said.
Sanders said that data literacy on population would need to be prioritised by all levels of government.
“For PNG, there would be an increase of responsibility for the working population to support this bulk of young people as well the older population.
“So with the right support, this working population can provide more investments in the health and education of the younger generation.
“It will require a lot of effort by the national and provincial governments to make sure the children who are born are healthy, mothers, who are conceiving, are also healthy and that there is access to quality education both in urban and rural areas,” Sanders said.
She said that conducting a census could help to effectively deliver services to the population that needed it.
“Census is vital in this anticipated development so that better planning is made to support the growing population.
“There needs to be a close watch on how the population is growing, the age of the population, the location of population is important for planning purposes so that any decision that is made is evidence-based so that service reaches the right people in the right places.
“We are partnering with the National Statistics Office to conduct demographic household surveys to give us a snapshot of indication for planning purposes but a census is more effective and that needs to be done.
“Although having children is not a bad thing, it’s more a question of providing opportunities for men and women on when to have their first children as it relates to the health and economic consequences,” she said.