The wealth of a country is measured in terms of resources that the country has.
This is also true that the Gross National Product (GNP) is a measure of a per capita income. Therefore, since each and every person of the country is included, the level of economic growth will depend on the participation of each person of the society in economic production.
This is also true that the Gross National Product (GNP) is a measure of a per capita income. Therefore, since each and every person of the country is included, the level of economic growth will depend on the participation of each person of the society in economic production.
Today, we are 7 billion people all over the globe. The last census was undertaken in Kenya (in 2006) placed the population at 36.1 million.
In 2008 the population of Kenya was estimated at 38 million by the United Nations Population Fund.
At the current annual growth rate of 2.8 percent – which is itself considerably higher than the world’s average of 1.2 percent – the Kenya population is projected to stand at 51.3 million in 2025 and 65 million in 2050 statistics according to the Kenya Demographic Profile 2011.
Kenya is faced with a myriad of problems, trying to feed its people, provide employment to its youth, quality and affordable education and healthcare.
Consequently, it is not a national issue to Kenya alone, but a global one, that poses a challenge from a growing population and its impact on health care, food security, jobs, and poverty.
To address these global issues, it needs concerted efforts from all nations on how to think of population control. Global consensus and cooperation are needed to achieve this.
Cristian Baeza theWorld Bank’s Director for Health, Nutrition, and Population, Human Development Network, says, “Failure to address high fertility with large and growing population cohorts results in unsustainable health care and schooling costs and lags in economic growth and may increase the risk of social and political unrest. But, addressing high fertility is necessary, but not sufficient, condition to harness the demographic dividend.”
Ten years ago, the Government committed itself to ensure that the Millennium Development Goal number five was realized by 2015.
The goal states: Achieving good maternal health requires quality reproductive health services and well-timed interventions to ensure a woman’s safe passage to motherhood.
The goal states: Achieving good maternal health requires quality reproductive health services and well-timed interventions to ensure a woman’s safe passage to motherhood.
Baeza proposes the need to invest in new generations and create an environment conducive to good jobs.
He states, greater investment and policy efforts to reduce the barriers to family planning and reproductive health services (including availability of contraceptives and services, as well as empowering women to access them) is essential if the demographic dividend is to materialize at all noting it as a priority for the World Bank’s Reproductive Health Action Plan 2010-2015.
The Action Plan notes that MDG for maternal health is one where the least amount of progress of all the MDGs has been made to-date globally.
It says, even in countries like with relatively good reproductive health outcomes, access to family planning, antenatal care, and delivery assistance among the poor and other vulnerable groups tend to be far worse than the national average.
It says, even in countries like with relatively good reproductive health outcomes, access to family planning, antenatal care, and delivery assistance among the poor and other vulnerable groups tend to be far worse than the national average.
This means Lawmakers need to play a vital role in making maternal survival a national priority and supporting the enactment of supportive legislation that addresses the root causes of maternal death and disability from pregnancy.
MDG five can be achieved but only if there are political will and financial investment.
The government should increase financial allocations for maternal health programmes to ensure all women in Kenya, regardless of their social status, have access to quality maternal health services.
The government should increase financial allocations for maternal health programmes to ensure all women in Kenya, regardless of their social status, have access to quality maternal health services.
According to Western Provincial Public Health Nurse Mrs. Assumpta Matekwa, Maternal Mortality Rate in Kenya stands at 488 deaths per 100,000 people and the deaths are as a consequence of unsafe abortion, pregnancy or delivery; where a significant proportion of these deaths could also be avoided through the effective use of family planning.
The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) 2013 report, “Implementing Free Maternal Health Care in Kenya – Challenges, Strategies, and Recommendations,” noted that only 44 percent of births in Kenya are delivered under the supervision of a skilled birth attendant, well below the target of 90per cent of deliveries by 2015.
Traditional birth attendants continue to assist with 28per cent of births, relatives and friends with 21pc, and in 7pc of births, mothers receive no assistance at all.
On June 1, 2013, the Government of Kenya took action to address this problem by initiating a policy of free maternity services in all public facilities, effective immediately.
Subsequently, it committed Sh3.8 billion to fund the free maternal health care program, with an additional Sh700 million for free access to health centers and dispensaries, Sh3.1 billion for recruitment of 30 community nurses per constituency, Sh522 million for recruitment of 10 community health workers per constituency, and Sh 1.2 billion for provision of housing units to health care workers, within its overall allotment of Sh10.6 billion for health care in the 2013/14 national budget.
Subsequently, it committed Sh3.8 billion to fund the free maternal health care program, with an additional Sh700 million for free access to health centers and dispensaries, Sh3.1 billion for recruitment of 30 community nurses per constituency, Sh522 million for recruitment of 10 community health workers per constituency, and Sh 1.2 billion for provision of housing units to health care workers, within its overall allotment of Sh10.6 billion for health care in the 2013/14 national budget.
The strategic framework focuses on five key areas:
- Accelerating HIV programmes,
- Influencing investment in high impact activities to promote maternal and child health and HIV control,
- Mobilizing men as clients, partners and agents of change,
- Involving communities to address barriers to accessing HIV, maternal and child health services and
- Providing leadership, accountability and recognition to accelerate the attainment of HIV, maternal and child health targets.
Sharon Astyk, a science writer, in her “7 Billion: Understanding the Demographic Transition” outlines factors that work to limit population growth deserve some greater attention:
Education works in several ways.
Literacy for women benefits families in a number of ways. It increases her health (a literate woman can read material about health and hygiene practices) and the health of her children, it increases her family’s security (if her husband dies, she can get a better job), it increases her desire to see her children receive education and it increases her political power – she can read and understand national issues and participate in them.
Mandatory education for all children serves to remove children from the labor pool and makes children not producers, but consumers, and thus parents are forced to view their children in that light.
Former President Mwai Kibaki’s call in October during the launch of Africa Women’s Decade 201xc0-2020 he said:
“Education holds the key to unlocking many of their obstacles facing women and girls. However, attaining and ensuring completion of education by girls is still a challenge due to dropout rates as a result of teenage pregnancies, early marriages, and negative social-cultural attitudes.”
KNCHR emphasizes on, “Broader health education with a focus on maternal health issues, gender equality, and reproductive rights is also essential. Women need to be taught to recognize the signs of complications early and empowered to make decisions about their health. Men, too, should be enlisted in the battle to safeguard maternal health.”
Astyk further says food security, including price supports, and many other possible programs improve the likelihood of having healthy and non-disabled infants, it makes it less necessary to set children to work finding food, and it makes it possible for women to reserve time for public participation and education – a beneficial circle.
Basic health care and hygiene matter because they reduce infant and child mortality, reduce harm in childbirth, and enable women to take advantage of contraception when they want it. They also make childbearing less dangerous, which paradoxically reduces birthrates, because it increases family stability and reduces rates of disability and death within families that drive children out to work at early age.
With the above, she reiterates that the thing is political power for women, food equity and access to clean water and freedom from war and rape are good things in and of themselves – they benefit everyone in the community. That they also help stabilize a world population that is in part straining every resource we have is just another factor.
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