Family planning an economic intervention – NPC boss

Dr Leticia Adelaide Appiah, Executive Director of the National Population Council, has advised Ghanaians to see family planning as an economic intervention to societal hardship.

She gave this advice exclusively to The Spectator in an interview last week in her office in Accra.

She indicated that, the well-being of a society and a nation as a whole stemmed from family planning, which was the reliable way to get rid of unwanted pregnancies and pre-term babies.

According to the Medical Doctor, unwanted pregnancies which mostly resulted in pre-term babies incurred additional costs to cater for such babies by the state.

These babies, she said, mostly grew up to become deviants in the society since they never had good parental guidance to help them accomplish their dreams.

She added that society survived on “relevant education”, hence there was the need for quality formal education for every child, and “when such child is deprived of that, it breeds the grounds for a dangerous community”.

“If you keep children out of school, they do not harness their God-given talents and are full of ignorance, where ignorance is a disease which breeds poverty,” she noted.

Dr Adelaide Appiah stated that “giving birth is not a talent” and asked the young girls to focus on their education than becoming mothers at their tender age.

On her part, the growth and development of a nation hinge on family planning which is a progress for individual’s to have a harmonious living.

“In fact, good parenting helps children develop their social, emotional and academic skills, as these qualities are needed for sustainable individual, community, national and global development,” she stressed.

Dr Appiah said if individuals accepted family planning as an economic intervention, the community also became resilient leading to a resilient nation as well.

 Occupying a statutory obligation as the Chief Advisor to the Government of Ghana on well and effective population management for the betterment of Ghanaians, Dr Appiah promised to deepen her commitments in tackling population issues in the country.

“National Population Council (NPC) would continue to educate and sensitise policy makers, policy implementers and the general public on the importance of effective population management; and to appreciate the need for improved and sustained quality of life,” the Executive Director reiterated.

According to her, “NPC constantly advocates and orchestrates effective population management that meets the socio-economic development of all, and this conscious effort starts with planning the family as the unit of societal progress.”

She further stated that, the success story of any nation hinged on good, responsible, disciplined, kind and stable parents.

By Alfred Nii Arday Ankrah