KABUL - The head of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Afghanistan said yesterday that family planning is a basic human right and imperative for social and economic development. . Download UNFPA Press Release in English | Dari | Pashto

Speaking at the launch of the UNFPA’s “State of the World Population Report 2012” in Kabul, Dr. Laurent Zessler, the UNFPA representative for the country, said that the Afghan women should be enabled to exercise their reproductive right, which not only saves life of women and children but also empowers people, strengthens health system and reduces poverty.

The report has declared family planning imperative for social and economic development emphasizing access to family planning for improved maternal health. “Increasing voluntary family planning could prevent one in three maternal deaths and one in 11 child deaths,” said Dr. Zessler.

Afghanistan’s Minister for Public Health, Dr. Suraya Dalil, said although the use of modern family planning methods doubled from 10 per cent in 2003 to 22 per cent in 2010, much more needed to be done to assure reproductive health right to all Afghan women.

“The Government has set itself the target of increasing the Contraceptive Prevalence Rate to 40 per cent by 2016,” added Dr. Dalil.

Afghanistan has made significant progress in maternal mortality but still the figures are quite high. Almost half of the women below 18 years of age get married while one-third of the women deliver their first baby before reaching 18 years of age. Most women in Afghanistan continue to have five children on average.

“Enabling women to exercise their reproductive rights, including choosing when to become pregnant, enables other rights including health, education and the achievement of a life with dignity,” said Dr. Zessler.

“Investing in family planning pays; it helps reduce poverty, improves health, promotes gender equality, enables adolescents to finish school and increase labour force participation,” added the UNFPA head in Afghanistan.

He called upon the Government of Afghanistan to further allocate funding and human resources towards ensuring reproductive health including family planning.

Speaking on the occasion, Minister Dalil said that 50 per cent of Afghan population was under 15 years of age, implying that a majority of the Afghan population is infants, youngsters and youths. She said this was not only an issue for health services delivery but is also a matter of social, economic, development and security.

The minister mentioned that population increase has direct relations with role of women in the society particularly their access to education and health services.

“Seventy six per cent of women between age of 15 and 49 are illiterate in Afghanistan while only 24 per cent are educated or can read and write,” said Dr. Dalil.

She said that it has been estimated that with the current momentum, Afghanistan’s population will reach 42 million by 2020, 47.6 million by 2025, 53 million by 2030 and 59 million by 2035 and all these people need employment and better conditions for life.