Dr. Leticia Appiah
The Executive Director of the National Population Council (NPC), Dr. Leticia Appiah, has called for enhanced awareness creation on reproductive health rights and services.
According to her, the country cannot afford to lose the gains made in the promotion of sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR) because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The pandemic has presented the world a chance to address the imbalance to build strong and resilient health system and equitable development of all including women and girls. Healthy and empowered women can bring about the change needed to create a sustainable future for all,” she said.
Dr. Appiah noted that as a nation, the NPC and its partners are committed to safeguarding the hard-fought gains and ensuring that SRHR and services stay on the local agenda and maintain the momentum towards achieving the SDGs by 2030.
She was speaking at the launch of the 2020 World Population Day commemorated on July 11 every year to raise awareness on population issues.
The theme for this year: ‘putting the brake on COVID-19: how to safeguard the health and rights of women and girls now’ seeks to raise awareness on ending maternal deaths, unmet needs for family planning and sexual and gender-based violence and harmful practices.
Dr. Appiah indicated that almost one out of three married women who wanted to space or limit the number of children to have do not use any family planning method leading to many unintended pregnancies.
She, thus, urged the media to help the NPC create the needed awareness on family planning in order to generate demand for the service.
The Deputy Director Operations & Advocacy, Marie Stopes Ghana, Patricia Antwi-Boasiako, pledged to support the NPC and called for the need to prioritize and invest in the health of women and girls.
“Our ability to achieve the SDGs in 10 years, to safeguard the future of our girls and ensure our development gains are indeed progressive and sustainable depends largely on the investments we make today as a country,” she stated.
The UNFPA Deputy Country Director, Dr. Agnes Ntibanyurwa, called on the government to put in place necessary measures to ensure the achievement of the formative goals which are necessary in meeting the SDGs.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri