By Folasade Akpan
The Executive Director, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Dr Natalia Kanem, in April, paid a two-day visit to Nigeria for the regional launch of the 2024 State of World Population (SWOP) report.
It was also an opportunity for her to have engagements with various officials of the country, including Vice-President, Kashim Shettima.
SWOP is UNFPA’s annual flagship report that features trends in the world population and reports on emerging themes in the field of sexual and reproductive health and rights.
It brings them into the mainstream and explores the challenges and opportunities they present for international development.
According to the report, Nigeria is among the eight identified countries to account for more than half of the projected increase in the world population up to 2050.
The other countries are Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Pakistan, Philippines and Tanzania. Presently Nigeria’s population is estimated at 200 million people.
The SWOP report titled “Interwoven Lives, Threads of Hope: Ending Inequalities in Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights”, highlights persistent disparities faced by marginalised communities worldwide.
“The theme comes with a narrative that reminds us that, globally we are composed of eight billion threads of hope, eight billion people interwoven with each of the threads being very unique’’, said Tinubu at the launch of the report.
Tinubu was represented by Prof. Ali Pate, the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare.
The president said meeting the aspirations and hopes of the unique members of these interwoven threads, who are mostly women, girls and young people, placed a great demand and a sense of duty on government to keep that hope alive.
“In addition, for each of the threads to be recognised and be relevant, there is need to sustainably invest in generating quality, well-disaggregated data that will help in ensuring none of the threads is un-woven”, he said.
He urged the relevant institutions to prioritise data generation to provide the baseline and showcase progress toward the indicators of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
“One of such data generation exercise is the conduct of the National Population and Housing Census within the 2020 round of Population and Housing census (2015-2024).
“We are consulting and working closely with the National Population Commission (NPC) to get this exercise right. We count on the support of UNFPA and other partners to get it right”, Tinubu said.
Kanem said that the report presents important data that shows that in many countries, inequalities in such key measures as access to healthcare has reduced.
However, while many countries are closing the gaps, the same cannot be said of others where the it has persisted or even got wider.
“The report indicates that since global measurements have been kept, two countries – India and Nigeria – have recorded the highest number of maternal deaths.
“The remarkable reduction in the number of women worldwide dying in childbirth, 34 per cent since 2000 is largely attributable to progress in those two countries.
However, in some areas, Nigeria such as maternal health Nigeria has made enourmous progress.
“Nigeria’s achievement in reducing maternal death rate by more than 11 per cent between 2013 and 2018 must be applauded”, Kanem said.
At the global level, in spite of the gains, she said, progress was slowing, while by many measures have stalled completely.
She noted that since 2016, the world made zero progress in saving women from preventable deaths during pregnancy and childbirth.
She explained that “one important reason, the report says, is that reaching those furthest behind has not been prioritised.
“We see, for example, that barriers to healthcare fell fastest for women who are more affluent, educated and privileged.
Kanem said that Nigeria was the economic engine of Africa and with its youthful population, has the right requirements to harness possibilities for demographic dividends.
According to her, investing in young people is one of the biggest bonuses that society can make.
She commended the federal government for putting into effect the principles of ‘leaving no one behind’ in the health sector.
She said “here, we find that the principles of leaving no one behind are being put into effect by the ministry that you coordinate.”
Development experts say harness the potential inherent in the girl child remains the surest way that addressing most of the challenges facing not only women and girls but the young generation. Pate acknowledges that fact.
“To do that, we have to start where it all starts to the adolescent girl, to the young woman, the educated, well nourished, to have empowerment, to have the ability to control her fertility to protect it to be safe in whatever she does.
“That is the approach that we are checking and the President has given that direction”, the minister said.
The minister also said that the ministry was embarking on an ambitious agenda to transform Nigeria’s health system to deliver first and foremost for women on maternal mortality and reproductive health.
But stakeholders are calling for more action by the authorities in addressing the challenge posed by maternal health; and concrete actions to towards sustainable population growth.
“The challenges facing pregnant women, especially, those in rural communities include poverty, illiteracy and deep seated ignorance about their health and lack of access to health facilities.
“Lack of support for pregnant women by their husbands, family, in addition to cultural and religious beliefs among others are not helping matters”, says Mrs. Adesua Oni, the founder of Pregnancy Support Foundation (PSF), and NGO.
Shettima concurs and asserts that “the health and vitality of any nation is measured by the way women and, the girl child is treated.
“By educating the girl child, we can transform our communities into better places for everyone,” he added.
Similarly, the Chairman, National Population Commission, Alhaji Nasir Kwarra agrees that population transcends numbers.
“Population is not just numbers, it is the people and this is what the people of the commission represent”, he said.
“As we embark on this critical national exercise (upcoming national census), we recognise the significance of international collaboration and standards.
“Conducting our census in alignment with the global schedule ensures our demographic data is comparable with international datasets, positioning Nigeria for informed decision-making and global relevance.
“This alignment also enables us to leverage global best practices and expertise, ensuring a high-quality census that meets international standards”, he said.
As Nigeria’s authorities and population stakeholders digest the 2024 State of World Population report, it is important that they put into actions lesson learnt from there to enhance the quality of Nigeria’s population. (NANFeatures)