Nordic legislators urge Malawi govt. to check population boom
A visiting delegation of five legislators from Nordic countries has urged the Malawi government to check the population boom, saying this can have a negative impact on social services.
The delegation from Iceland, Sweden and Denmark said this on Monday at Capital Hill, the seat of government in Lilongwe where they met Minister of Health Atupele Muluzi at the start of their two-week tour of Malawi.
“The population is growing fast. There should be policies to control to control this before it gets out of hand,” said one of the Nordic members of parliament.
In response, Muluzi acknowledged the population boom but said the government has put in place measures to check the population growth, which has grown by 35 per cent in the past 10 years according to latest Housing and Census statistics.
“We have now intensified civic education programs to sensitize people on the need to have a reasonable family size not only for the good of the nation but for their own good as a family,” said Muluzi.
He said birth-control methods can now be obtained for free at any public hospital facility including in remotest areas.
He also told the delegation that the government is doing extremely well in maximizing Global Fund and other funds, saying this has helped to bring down malaria, TB and HIV and AIDS diseases.
He said at least 800, 000 people are now on ARVs, medicine which helps to prolong lives of people with AIDS.
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Invest in good quality education for women and girls and gender equality and everything will follow. Also invest in access to good quality reproductive health services and information. Ensure full implementation of the ICPD. Population control is not the way to go. If you invest in good quality lives of women and girls, the rest will follow.
All ministers that have held this portfolio in this Ministry are failures. This issue is not new. UNFPA has sounded the warning several times before. but no one has taken heed. Malawi National Population Control Council is also underperforming. Their counterparts in Namibia and Botswana are doing extremely well. What is needed is for he Government to develop a comprehensive communication strategy to educate the masses on population control. Muluzi has already failed in that area, unfortunately he will be a mere MP from May 21 and will have little influence.
As long as a country has grinding poverty, it will have a high birth rate since having many children is seen as securing financial security for the future. This is Development Economics 101. The solution is not forcing contraceptives on poor people; rather the solution is uplifting the economic circumstances of the masses. Malawi needs to drastically curb corruption and ensure that development of the country as a whole is taken seriously – the birth rate will drop as a result. Education of rural girls should also be given top priority; studies have shown that keeping girls in school longer… Read more »
This is a well-reasoned and sensible comment. Unfortunately the DPP government has singularly failed to do anything to lift the masses out of poverty.
True. Germany and Japan’s population s are declining. The former has been hit hard such that it is contemplating of hiring out people from other countries to work in its army where manpower is a cause for concern. It seems the locals are not interest to work in the Ministry of Defence. As for the latter, businesses and farmers are openly considering allowing migrant workers to pick up jobs in their country, but cultural conformity might be the stumbling block. Japanese are taught to learn and observe their cultural values at an early age. As a demanding society, Japanese conform… Read more »
Not Malawi. If there is a country which is useless is Malawi. Look educated people in Malawi are more savages. You gives them agood job they still everything, they start fucking each other at working
Places, they even produce children when they know that they are not on good health.