Uplift efforts to go in vain unless population growth checked

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Adviser for Health and Family Welfare ASM Matiur Rahman said Sunday government's various efforts for development of the health sector would go in vain unless the rising population rate is checked, reports BSS.
So, the adviser said, the government has been working relentlessly for reducing the population growth rate to two per cent from the present 32 per cent.
The adviser was speaking at the inaugural ceremony of a 6-day consultative workshop on `Capacity-building and strategic policy development' organised by the Partners in Population and Development (PPD), a heath watchdog, in collaboration with the UNFPA at a city hotel.
The health adviser said the government is committed to achieving the millennium development goals (MDGs) on the mother and child mortality rate by 2015 ensuring proper reproductive health services in the country.
"Our achievement in reducing the infant mortality rate is satisfactory, but we have to work more for reducing the mother mortality rate," the adviser said.
Matiur said Bangladesh is a unique example of public-private partnership and collaboration, especially in the health, nutrition and population (HNP) sector.
He urged the PPD member states to share their best experiences for impressive achievements by the least development countries (LDCs), including Bangladesh, in the family planning.
The adviser apprised the PPD delegates that Bangladesh is now stressing on the permanent methods of the family planning.
Health and Family Welfare Secretary AKM Zafar Ullah Khan, Executive Director of the PPD Harry S. Jooseery and Senior Technical Advisor (Population and Development) of the UNFPA Rabbi Royan, Programme Officer Dr Riffat Hossain Lucky, and delegates from various embassies and high commissions, among others, were present.
Zafar Ullah Khan said the rate of the country's contraceptive users must be increased to 72 per cent from the present 57 per cent ensuring proper reproductive health services so that the MDGs on the mother and child mortality rate can be achieved by the targeted time.