Workshop on reporductive health,family planning underway in Addis

04 July 2012, Addis Ababa:-The Ethiopian population grows by 2.6 percent rate annually. If the growth continues at this rate, the total population will surpass 100 million in 20 years time.

That is according to the 2011 demographic survey of Ethiopia released on a family planning advocacy workshop held on Wednesday in Addis Ababa.

Ethiopia has formulated a population policy to equilibrate the population growth with the economic condition.

In this regard, the country has registered remarkable achievements in terms of creating accessible health facilities to the population.

Though remarkable progress has been made on reproductive health and family planning in recent years, the unmet need for family planning is still high that one in four currently married women has an unmet need.

The next move of the government should be to overcome this says Genet Mengistu, Population Affairs Director at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development.

The advocacy workshop on universal access to reproductive health services and family planning was held as one milestone in the run up to the world population day and the London Summit on Family Planning taking place on July 11.

The workshop deliberated on such issues as achievements made so far and existing challenges in improving access to family planning, addressing the very high unmet need in the country, and ensuring universal access to reproductive health services.

Presentations were made on the advocacy workshop on issues of universal access to reproductive health services and family planning.

Senior government officials and representatives of donors, diplomatic corps, UN agencies, civil society organizations and other stakeholders participated in the workshop.

Source:-ERTA