Local authorities asked to integrate population variables into development planning

Mr Moses Bukari Mabengba, Northern Regional Minister, has urged Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in the region to integrate population variables into their development planning processes.

He said population dynamics had serious implications for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as it influenced segments such as poverty eradication, universal education, gender equality and empowerment of women, improvement of health and environmental sustainability among others.

Mr Mabengba was addressing a one-day regional advocacy seminar on the 2010 Population and Housing Census (PHC) organised by the National Population Council (NPC) in collaboration with the Ghana Statistical Service in Tamale on Wednesday.

It was sponsored by the Government of Ghana and the United Nations Fund for Population Activities.

The seminar which was on the theme: “Generating relevant data through PHC and surveys for national development,” was targeted at civil society groups, religious and community leaders.

Mr Mabengba stressed the importance of relevant data for effective planning and therefore urged the MMDAs as well as civil society groups and individual stakeholders to be authentic in the provision of accurate data, adding that: “This depends on the accuracy of the enumeration process and the management of the data generated”.

The Regional Minister said the country’s population was its most valuable resource as it served as the instrument and objective of national development.

He said it was therefore in this regard that government had as its prime responsibility of the provision of programmes aimed at improving the quality of the life of the people.

Chief Alhassan Issahaku Amadu, Northern Regional Population Officer, who delivered a paper on the topic: “The impact of rapid population growth on national development,” said the region had a population size of 531,573 and 727,618 in the first two post independence census held in 1960 and 1970 respectively with an inter-censal growth rate of 3.1 percent.

He said the population in 1984 for the region was 1,164,583, showing an annual growth rate of 3.4 percent over the 1970 figure, while the 2000 PHC recorded 1,820,806 as the population for the region.

He said the figure showed an increase of 56.3 percent over the 1984 figure with an intercensal growth rate of 2.8 percent, adding that the figure was more than the national growth rate of 2.7 percent.

Chief Amadu said the population of the Northern Region had been projected to be 2,253,484 in 2010 and 2,705,785 in 2020.

He said the region also had the largest population of children (46.3 percent aged 0-14 years) against the national average of 41.4 percent and attributed this to the early childbearing and higher total fertility rates, as well as the youth migrating to the south leaving the children behind.

Mr Tenii Mahama, Project Officer of the UNFPA in the Tamale Office questioned the base figures which newly created districts in the northern region used for their planning purposes.

He wondered whether the newly created districts which included Central Gonja, Sawla/Tuna/Kalba and Yunyoo Districts were using data of the previous assemblies from which they were carved  to plan their development.

Source: GNA

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