African Ministers Meet Over Rising Population

{{Ministers and other top African leaders met in Addis Ababa to forge a way to deal with the continent’s population growth that has now surpassed the one billion mark.}}

The 179 governments committed to a 20-year Programme of Action (PoA) to deliver human rights-based developments.

Since the adoption of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Programme of Action in 1994, the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), working jointly with the African Union and UNFPA, has provided intergovernmental platform to translate the ICPD into regional realities.

In 2012, while global growth declined by 2.7 per cent, due to the economic crisis, Africa bucked the trend and grew at five per cent.

Notably, all the sub-regions grew faster than the global average, with the highest rate being 6.3 per cent and the lowest one 3.5 per cent.

“Smart investments in human capital and institutional capacity with emphasis on domestic mobilisation are critical.

Therefore strong government commitment coupled with strategic planning are key,” Mr Ato Hailemariam Dessalegn, Ethiopia prime minister, said at the opening of the ICPD conference.

“That means despite our exceptional demographic vitality, and even more astounding our five per cent average growth, we are not capable of creating the 15 million jobs we need every year,” he added.

Uganda was represented by state ministers Sarah Opendi (Health), Fred Omach (Finance) and Rukia Nakadama (Gender).

{Thecitizen}