The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | More than 2,000 members of the Academia are meeting in Imperial Resort Beach in Entebbe to introduce a new roadmap for exploiting the bombing African population.
The 8th African Population Conference is being held under the auspices of the Union of African Population Studies (UAPS) will develop the Entebbe declaration, the new roadmap for guiding African governments on new approaches for addressing persisting gaps in population dynamics.
Top of their agenda is how to tap potentials of the young population in Africa as the continent’s population is projected to quadruple from 1 Billion in 2015 to 4 Billion in 2100.
Professor Samuel Nii Ardey Codjoe, the President of the Union of African population studies says harnessing the African population dividend is significant for the development of the continent.
In the next 30 years, Africa is expected to add 1.2 Billion people onto its 1.3 Billion population recorded by 2019, calling for fundamental infrastructural expansion in healthcare, education, housing, roads, transportation and jobs for stability and better livelihoods under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs).
Population researchers say this is a tall order for many African countries and the ones such as Uganda with the highest population growth rates are unfortunately the ones least able to make such necessary investments.
Prof. Codjoe says the time to take stock of the gains and persisting challenges in the aftermath of the International Conference on Population and Development held 25 years ago in Cairo, Egypt is now in order to craft new measures for progress into the future.
Prof. Codjoe says the 1994 Cairo Convention made various recommendations on access to family planning, Other themes to be considered at the Conference include geographical patterns of major health challenges such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and Non communicable diseases in Africa; Leaving No Woman, No Child Behind: What Evidence On Inequalities Is Needed To Advocate And Act as well as Evaluation of Population, Reproductive Health and HIV policies and programs.
They will be discussed in plenary, side meetings and side events while the General assembly of the Union will be hosted tomorrow Tuesday. In attendance are members of Parliaments, Economists, policymakers, Diplomats and donors alongside government representatives.
The Uganda National Planning Authority is going to the Conference to represent the Country’s bulging 42 Million People.
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