News…
Ban disappointed over Darfur, child soldiers
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed deep disappointment at the use of child soldiers and the lack of progress toward a political settlement to the conflict in Darfur in a report released Tuesday. Children were among the rebel soldiers captured after a recent attack on the Sudanese capital.
High fertility rates in Afghanistan lead to high mortality, future troubles
The UN Population Fund warns that Afghanistan’s extraordinarily high fertility rate — the average woman has between six and seven children — has implications for women, the environment, and the future of the nation. On its current track, Afghanistan’s population will more than double by 2050. The nation has the second-highest maternal mortality rate in the world.
Government planning to curb population growth
Yemen’s National Population Council (NPC), a government body, has said it has approved a plan to implement a national population strategy to reduce the fertility rate - one of the highest in the world. The plan aim is to reduce the current fertility rate from 6.1% to 4.0%by 2015, as at current Yemen’s population is increasing by 700,000 every year.
Slavery a problem for Mali
Thousands of Malians are living as slaves, despite the common perception that slavery does not exist in the country. Economic uncertainty, lack of legal prohibition, and cultural tradition are helping to perpetuate the practice, say rights groups.
Food crisis threatening nutrition of young children
Rising prices of basic food commodities have forced the Philippine government to scale down efforts to address malnutrition among children, putting the under sixes at nutritional risk.
Militants hampering anti-polio drive as new case confirmed
Pakistani health officials in the area say campaigns against vaccination teams by militants, and clashes between them and troops, have prevented some 50,000 of the Swat Valley’s 365,000 children under five from being vaccinated.
Pregnant women still struggle to prevent HIV
Larger numbers of pregnant women living with HIV in Swaziland can now access services to prevent mother-to-child transmission of the virus, but activists and health officials say more emphasis should have been placed on quality rather than quantity.
Moving towards universal birth registration
Bangladesh, the world’s seventh most populated country, is moving to provide its over 150 million people with official birth certificates. Recent reports indicate that 40 percent of the population had received a birth certificate by the end of March 2008, while more than 30 percent had been registered and would receive their certificates soon.
New survey indicates family planning weaknesses
World Population Day on 11 July with its theme “Family planning, is a right, make it real” was a bleak reminder for Pakistani health practitioners of the precarious state of maternal, neonatal and child health (MNCH).