Jordan Times
Tuesday, September 7, 2004
'Controlling population
growth now critical'
By Sarah McGregor-Wood
AMMAN — The Higher Population Council (HPC) is holding a series of seminars
around the country this month in a bid to drive home the message that reducing
population growth is essential to the Kingdom's future economic survival and
overall development.
“We have already reached a critical phase,” explained HPC Secretary General
Zuhair Kayed.
“If we have not made a significant reduction in population growth by 2020 — from
2.8 per cent now to 1.5 per cent — there simply won't be enough basic
necessities to go around, and that includes food and water.”
The HPC is looking to explain the problem of unchecked population growth to the
public by concentrating on the economic cost to the country, highlighting the
scarcity of resources in the Kingdom, the rising costs of child rearing, and
increasing levels of poverty and unemployment.
This month's seminars will tackle the issues of both fertility rates and
reproductive health, and will present the results of a population survey carried
out by the Department of Statistics and Johns Hopkins University.
“We will be disseminating this information to the parties we need to work with
on this — the government, the NGOs and the private medical sector — and looking
at the challenges and opportunities we face,” explained Kayed.
“But the most important thing is that we get the public involved and raise
awareness about the seriousness of this issue,” he added.
To this end, the HPC will be launching its first mass media National Population
Week campaign in December this year, with four similar awareness weeks planned
for 2005.
“There will be lectures, TV shows, bus advertisements, everything that we can do
to highlight the problem and create an environment for change.”
The Kingdom's current 2.8 per cent growth rate is one of the highest in the
region, with countries such as Egypt and Lebanon reporting rates of 2.0 and 1.6
per cent respectively.
Kayed attributes Jordan's increased rate to a number of largely political
reasons, including the various immigration peaks over the past four decades.
“Additionally, Jordanians can be very traditional and in rural areas, families
still want to have a lot of children as their form of insurance policy, so the
parents and grandparents will be supported in later life,” added Kayed.
“But we have to get the message across that it is the quality of the population,
not the quantity that matters.”
In a bid to expand their reach, the HCP is working with religious leaders,
hoping to have the family planning message passed on through Friday sermons.
“Some do reject our explanations and claim that because we are funded by Western
donors, we are being manipulated by them,” Kayed said.
“We need to get over the lack of knowledge, and explain to them that our actions
are in line with the teachings of Islam.”
The council's five-year National Population Strategy and Reproductive Health
Action Plan has been in place since 2003, and Kayed is confident that they are
on track to meet their targets.
“We are working very hard and on many different levels, but what we really need
is to convince the public to share the responsibility. We can't get 100 per cent
take up but we need to reach the majority.”