World Population Day 2011 - 7 billion reasons
11 July 2011
Source: IPPF & PSN
PSN marked World Population Day by joining International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), the All Party Parliamentary Group on Population, Development and Reproductive Health and other organisations to co-sponsor an evening reception at the House of Lords.
Women in Chad, where the population is growing at a rate of 2.8% a year.
© UNFPA
7 Billion Reasons
With the world population set to reach 7 billion later on this year, the theme of this year's World Population Day was '7 Billion reasons'.
The reception was co-hosted by IPPF and the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Population, Development and Reproductive Health, and co-sponsored by PSN alongside fifteen other non-governmental organisations working on issues related to sexual and reproductive health and rights.
PSN’s Catherine Budgett-Meakin and Karen Newman attended the popular event, alongside numerous Members of Parliament and Peers from all political parties, Ambassadors, Department for International Development officials and civil society organizations.
Marking World Population Day
Stephen O'Brien MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for International Development, gave the key note speech, highlighting the crucial need to increase access to rights-based family planning services. He stated that;
"Meeting the unmet need is crucial. The figure of 215 million couples [with an unmet need for family planning] is really incredibly important. The UN's medium population projection to 2050 of 9.3 billion is firmly based on the assumption that the unmet need - the family planning gap - is closed, by giving people the services they're demanding."
Reinstating the UK Government's commitment to championing reproductive health, he concluded by adding that the UK Government;
"will also be championing the importance of global population growth and ensuring it is recognised in discussions on development in an open, honest and constructive way. Rapid population growth will only slow and begin to fall when women are educated and empowered to take control of their sexual and reproductive lives - in short by being enabled to take control of their lives, they give us the best chance that the world does not lose control of all our lives."
A transcript of the full world population day speech by Stephen O'Brien MP is available on the IPPF website.