Minister of Health Hala Zayed announced that a new family-planning initiative will be launched similar to the “100 Million Health” campaign to control population growth during a press conference at the headquarters of National Population Council on Sunday.
The minister confirmed that the state will work to address the population issue during the next phase in a manner contrary to what has been done over the past years, highlighting that President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi is fully concerned with the population growth issue, noting that it was first file discussed during their first meeting.
Zayed explained that the initiative aims to control the increase in population particularly in rural areas and villages, where families are giving birth in high rates.
The new initiative will work by creating awareness on the benefits of having only two children, Zayed explained, adding that it will be divided into multiple stages across the nation’s governorates according to the size of the population issue in each province, and according to studies prepared in this regard.
Moreover, she pointed out that civil society organisations will work with the ministry to improve the living conditions of families, with the aim of raising awareness, and organizing convoys for family planning.
The Egyptian population reached 104.2 million; 94.98 million of which live within Egypt, while 9.4 million live abroad, said Abu Bakr El-Gendy, head of Egypt’s Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics in October 2017.
Population growth became one of the major challenges threatening the economy and the capability of the state to offer citizens equal rights, causing the government to renew its long-term calls of birth control.
