Government has vowed to work hand in hand with community leaders and other stakeholders in promoting the right to access family planning in a bid to control population growth.

Ministry of Health Principal Secretary Dr. Dan Namarika made the remarks during World Population Day commemoration in Mangochi district on Saturday.

“Population is a development issue hence the need to involve all key stakeholders in ensuring that right to family planning is not infringed upon to curb the country’s rapid population growth,” Namarika explained.

He called on Mangochi District Council to seriously look into the district’s rapid population growth which is at a staggering 1.2 million and the family planning uptake at 31%.

In his remarks, Mangochi District Council Chairperson, Omar Magombo said they will continue to promote and train more community based distribution agents (CBDA’s) who can easily convince community members to take family planning methods.

“It is very easy to convince the community members through people they are familiar with and share the same language with, that’s why we will engage the CBDA’s even more so that they can spread the family planning messages to all corners of the district and reduce the population that is growing so rapidly,” he said.

This year’s commemoration was based on the theme “Family Planning a Human Right”.