Experts call for access to family planning services.

KARACHI -- Pakistan has the modern contraceptive prevalence rate of 25 per cent, which is one of the lowest in South Asia. Lack of access to such services is a major driver of maternal mortality, poor health and exclusion for women and girls.

These views were expressed by experts from the Aga Khan University's Institute for Global Health and Development at a meeting held on Monday in connection with a five-year family planning project - Sihat Mand Khandan: Healthy Families for Pakistan Through Accelerated Sexual Reproductive Health and Family Planning Services.

The project is partnered with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Sindh government, Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) and Aga Khan University (AKU), and funded by the government of Canada.

It aims at enhancing awareness about family planning, provision of quality family planning counselling and services, and the capacity building of public health care providers at health care facilities and lady health workers, in the selected districts of Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan.

The experts were of the opinion that population growth was a cross-sectoral issue that impacted all aspects of life, including economy, education, health and environment, and that there was a need to integrate it with maternal and child health programmes.

Earlier, under the project, a delegation comprising Canada's High Commissioner to Pakistan Wendy...

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