Health experts have asked policymakers to formulate policies that will lead the country to address the challenges of the unmet need for family planning-related commodities.
The Director of Curative Services at the Ministry of Health, Dr. Charles Olaro says, addressing the issues of family planning is crucial for the country in terms of curbing issues such as poverty which is affecting a number of people in the country.
He says that currently, there is a high dependence ratio in the country, and on average, one working Ugandan adult looks after about 7-9 persons.
He says, there is a need to reduce the unmet need for contraceptives to less than 10% and also increase the modern contraceptives prevalence to 46.6% by the year 2025.
He made the remarks while officiating at the Launch of a partnership between the Ministry of Health and Marie Stops aimed at strengthening the public sector sustainable investment in Uganda to address issues of unmet need for contraceptives in the country.
They revealed that this rate of growth has a serious impact on gender, health, the environment as well as development. Apparently, this in turn leads to changes in social values and cultural behaviors of affected communities.
These observations were made at the recently concluded conference on Population Dynamics, Gender, Health and Climate Connection. The conference took place under the theme, ‘‘Why bridging the gap and building solutions together is a win-win for people, climate and the planet.’’
The National Population Council (NPC) organized the conference. They partnered with Regenerate Africa and National Population, Health and Environment (PHE) Network.
They warned that population growth has cost implications to the country such as deforestation and wetland destruction.
“We are seeing increased land use change due to changing investment priorities. We are seeing protected areas becoming farmland, settlements, industrial parks, and communication facilities due to the need to meet the demands of the growing population in Uganda,” Mr Stephen David Mugabi, one of the speakers at the conference said.
The National Population Council estimates Uganda’s population to be around 47,250,000 people in 2022. However, it is also estimated that the population is expected to double by the mid-century of 2050.
Additionally, the United Nations places Uganda’s 2022 fertility rate at an estimated 3.5 births per woman. This is almost twice the current global average of 2.3
