UNFPA organizes marathon in Matrouh on World Population Day

UNFPA organizes marathon in Matrouh on World Population Day
13 / 07 / 2019
By Marwa Nassar - -

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) organized on Friday a 1.5 kilometer-marathon in the Egyptian coastal city of Matrouh within the framework of celebrations of the World Population Day.

The event was meant to disseminate awareness among youths about population issues, especially bloating population and family planning.

The event was organized in collaboration with the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation and the Etijah – Youth and Development Consultancy Institute in Egypt.

UNFPA Representative in Egypt Aleksandar Bodiroza participated in the marathon alongside UNFPA Youth Ambassador novelist Essam Youssef and Egyptian football freestyler Yousef Ayman.

The event is held under the aegis of Youth and Sports Minister Ashraf Sobhi and Matrouh Governor Magdi el Gharbali.

After the marathon, El Mina Band and High Dam Band performed concerts within the framework of the Music for Development” project.
On Thursday, a workshop was held in Matrouh governorate. A play was performed to spread awareness about the fallout of overpopulation and early marriage.

Meanwhile, Bodiroza said he tasked a number of fine artists to paint five murals in five different governorates on reproductive heath and rights on the 25th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD).

The murals – to be drawn in tandem with the Abdel-Wahab Abdel-Mohsen Foundation for Culture, Art and Development – will be a catalyst for adhering to family planning and putting an end to maternal mortality and harmful practices against women and girls.

These activities also fall within the framework of the UNFPA Egypt’s Art for Development initiative, whereby UNFPA employs unconventional methods such as art to advocate for health and population issues.

Egypt is striving to curb swelling population within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Egypt’s cabinet expects the country’s population growth rate to almost halve in the five years leading up to 2052, when the population is projected to reach over 153 million.

Population growth is forecast to ease into 0.85% in 2047-2052 from 1.99% in 2017-2022, a drop of around 43%, the cabinet said in a statement on Friday marking World Population Day.

The cabinet said that the birth rate in Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous country, would drop by 2052 to 13.5 births per 1,000 people from 24.5 births last year.

The government’s official statistics authority, CAPMAS, puts the current population count at about 99 million.

In March, Egypt launched the National Population Strategy, a project funded by a 27-million-euro grant from the European Union to promote family planning.

Late last year, the social solidarity ministry launched the “Two Is Enough” program, a major government family-planning campaign that aims to challenge traditions of large families in Egyptian rural areas.

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