DHAKA, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) -- The UN wants Bangladesh to increase funding from own resources for family planning programs urgently, saying slower population growth can better help the country for adaptation to climate change and sustainable development, leading English newspaper The Daily Star reported on Tuesday.
Slamming collapse of overseas funding for family planning, UN secretary-general's Special Envoy Nafis Sadik said, "Bangladesh cannot afford to wait on overseas assistance. The government should use its own resources to increase funding for family planning programs, as a matter of urgency."
Bangladesh's population growth now is 1.48 percent annually, and still, almost one-fifth of all married couples want to take family planning, but have no access to it. Some 12,000 women die each year of pregnancy-related complications, while some 120,000 children die annually before they reach their first year, according to United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) data.
"Continued lower birth rates and slower population growth in Bangladesh will offer all its people more room for adaptation to climate change, and progress towards balanced and sustainable development," Nafis Sadik, also former executive director of UNFPA, said.
"Coherent adaptation to climate change calls for careful consideration of population growth and movement," she added.
