"Made it possible by family planning": Building Momentum based on Experiences of Women and Men.

• By: Dr.Talib Lashari

Pakistan is one of the largest five countries in the world with its 241 million population. These high population numbers are growing at an alarming rate of 2.55% per anum. Besides other reasons, this high rate of population growth is one of the factors in increasing poverty which stands at 25.3% (2024) and is 7 percentage points higher than 2023.

The population of Sindh - a second largest province - is also increasing at the same level currently having 55.69 million people.This fast growing population is more of a challenge than opportunity. One of the major and cost effective ways to address this challenge is voluntary and right based family planning.

The FP2030 Secretariat - a leader in spearheading the global commitments on family planning - has launched a campaign in 2024 during United Nations General Assembly under the title "Made it Possible by Family Planning". This campaign simply means that accounting for stories and experiences of those individual women, men and girls who used family planning and subsequently were able to become high achievers in their lives in terms of education, employment, economic empowerment, health etc. The campaign very well coincides with the theme of the World Population Day 2025 calling for "empowering young people to create the families they want in a fair and hopeful world".

The "Made it Possible" campaign aims to advocate that family planning generates economic empowerment for women and girls; and is key to sustainable development. It also ensures maternal and health outcomes. The FP2030 Asia and Pacific regional hub intends to launch this campaign from Pakistan which is a great opportunity for the country to advocate for political and general public support; raising financing for family planning; and engaging main stream media and social media platforms.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2025