ISLAMABAD: Lawmakers on Wednesday agreed to increase funding for family planning programs to help Pakistan achieve a sustainable population growth rate.
During a meeting amongst legislators representing major political parties in a dialogue also agreed that funds were necessary to initiate subsidised and free services through voucher programs to improve access of poor and marginalised populations and harness the private health sector to enhance outreach of population programs.
The meeting was organized by the Population Center Pakistan with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and in collaboration with the Pakistan Institute for Parliamentary Services (PIPS) and Population Council.
The seminar was held to facilitate legislators on the multifarious challenges of a rapidly growing population which call for stronger political commitment and investment in family planning and reproductive health programs in the country.
The meeting featured dialogues with subject experts, program managers and health practitioners to focus attention on parliamentarians’ role for advocating high impact practices that can be a game changer to promote family planning in Pakistan. Members of the Senate, legislators from the national and provincial assemblies, and regional body of Gilgit-Baltistan representing all major political parties attended the meeting.
In her welcome remarks, Dr. Zeba Sathar, Country Director, Population Council emphasised the role of increased and better resource allocation for family planning services to improve maternal and child health indicators due to decline in unintended pregnancies.
She called on the parliamentarians to advocate for allocation of Rs. 10 billion of the Special Population Fund stipulated by the Council of Common Interests (CCI) in 2018 to ensure CCI targets of reducing population growth are met. Dr. Sathar also stressed on greater equity for poorest women with unmet family planning need through subsidies for travel expenses and provider costs.
In his opening remarks, Mohammad Anwar, Executive Director, PIPS said parliamentarians’ role is pivotal for oversight and accountability to address the population challenge. He stressed for legislators’ role to drive political discourse on the population issue in the assembly floors by regularly dedicating time to discuss its impact on the country’s development.
Speaking at the occasion, Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed said political parties must leverage on the existing cross-party consensus on attaining sustainable population growth in Pakistan and advocate for inclusion of critical areas of health and family planning to take center stage in all national development and human security.
Present on the occasion, Senator Waleed Iqbal stressed on advocating for reducing the alarming population growth by highlighting its cross-sectoral impact on other areas of life particularly water emergency and food insecurity. He emphasised parliamentarians to promote the new national narrative of balance that promotes maintaining balance between family size and resources.
Mahmood Jan, Deputy Speaker, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly emphasized legislators’ role in advocating for sustained population growth through grassroots engagement at the constituency-level, targeted media campaigns and through discourse in the assembly houses and support to enhance budgetary allocation for population planning activities.
The meeting featured plenary sessions to discuss how Pakistan can bend the population curve by implementing global practices of increasing finances, utilising voucher programs and engagement of private sector to enhance outreach and access to family planning services amongst all economic cadres of population.
Panelists included Dr. Hanid Mukhtar, Former Senior Economist, World Bank; Syed Moazzam Ali Shah from Benazir Income Support Programme; Dr. Yasmeen Qazi, technical advisor, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; representatives from the International Rescue Committee; Punjab Social Protection Authority and the Pakistan Academy of Family Physicians.
Panelists exchanged how increased investments in family planning programs are globally proven strategies to avert maternal and infant mortalities, unintended pregnancies and reduced health care costs.
Citing global evidence from Mali, Uganda, Iran, Indonesia and Bangladesh, panelists said vouchers have emerged as an effective strategy to combat inequities in access to health services by the poor women. They also presented findings on private physicians are well-positioned to address unmet family planning need and the need for Pakistan to harness the large untapped potential of the private sector in providing reproductive health services.
Recognising that population growth is a cross-sectoral issue that impacts all aspects of life, legislators expressed their enthusiastic support for urgent and substantial improvement in accessing to family planning and maternal health services for women.
