Lao Govt to invest in youth and women to build strong Laos

(KPL) Lao Government will invest in youth and women to build strong Lao PDR in the world population of 7 billion, according to the message of Mr. Somdy Douangdy, Minister of Planning and Investment for World Population Day 2011.

The celebration of the World Population Day held on 11 July, the Minister of Planning and Investment (MPI) in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to focus attention on the urgency and importance of population issues. It was an outgrowth of the interest generated by the Day of Five Billion, which was observed on 11 July 1987. This year, on 31 October, the world population will reach 7 billion. It took tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of years for the human kind to reach the first 1 billion in 1800. From there, it took 211 years for the global population is set to reach a massive seven billion and Lao PDR observes this growth. Lao PDR is a small country in the world of 7 billion people and has only around 6 million population. Lao population has increased rapidly, nearly double in the last 20 years; increased from 3 million in 1985 to 5.6 million in 2005. The population growth rate, or the speed of population growth, is slowing down at the global and national level, but it does not mean that the population will not grow. On the contrary, the population size is continued to grow.



An increase in number of population is an achievement, opportunity and a challenge. Achievement because this is the result of better health and longer life. Challenge because part of this growth was a result of unplanned and unwanted pregnancies and the rapid population growth is contributing to the unprecedented changes that are occurring in our living environment.

In Lao PDR, the change of population has resulted in a large generation of young and working-age population who are the key driver of Lao economic development. 1 in 3 of Lao population is between 10 and 24 years old, and the working-age population shares about 57% of the total population. It is a challenge to meet the needs of Lao population both men and women, of all ages and from all ethnic groups for education, good health, skills development and employment. But importantly for continued prosperity, we need to draw our other half of human resources that is girls and women who are currently still lacked behind.

In order to realise these opportunities and challenges, the Government of Lao PDR has been implementing a number of policies and plans. The 7th National Socio-Economic Development Plan (2011-2015) has focused on human resource development and achieving the Millennium Development Goals, especially those MDGs that are lagging behind, including improving maternal health, achieving gender equality and reducing poverty. In terms of young population, the Government has increased its investment in the education and skills development, not only in compulsory education but also strengthening secondary and higher educations. The focus is also on vocational education which is in high demand. We also recognize that young people are facing many challenges today including HIV/AIDS, drugs, alcohol, unsafe sex, school dropped-out, unemployment, early pregnancy and early marriage. The Government, therefore, focuses the investment in addressing these issues by increase the government budget allocation of 9% for the health sector and 17% for the education sector.

We are recently revising the National Strategy for the Advancement of Women (2011-2015) focusing on reducing gender discrimination, promoting women�s participation and leadership, to name a few. As part of reducing deaths during pregnancy which is preventable but still takes a life of many Lao women and their newborns; the Government has made a great effort including the provision of free delivery services and the initiative of Maternal, Newborn and Child Package. Recently, on the 6th July, the Ministry of Health celebrated the Midwifery Day and handed-over certificates for 140 community midwives this year after the programme were inactivated for the last 20 years. The Government is committed to train 1,500 midwives by 2015. Midwives will go back to their communities to provide their quality services to help ensure that every pregnant and delivery is safe and healthy.

Many researches have shown that Lao population do not want many children as before, but they do not have universal access to family planning. Therefore, Lao Government through relevant line ministries and organization works toward ensuring that people have access to such information and services that allow them to plan their healthy and happy family.

Today the Government of Lao PDR stands ready to embrace the promise to invest more on better education, health and employment of Lao population. The Government hope that the message on the World Population Day will inspire all Lao to united in achieving educated, healthy and happy families, wherein lies the prosperity of our nation. I urge you all to be responsible by planning your own family, promoting girls and boys in education and skills development; and using the social and health services that provided by the Government in order to become a healthy and educated population. Today on World Population Day, MPI and UNFPA would like to launch the national 7 Billion Campaign. A series of activities will be organized throughout the year in which we have already started the student essay competition in late April 2011. We will work with universities and relevant sectors to organize activities each month from now. Seven-day countdown activities will start from 24 October 2011 building to the celebration of 7 Billion Day on 31 October 2011; and closing the national 7 Billion Campaign with the launching of the State of World Population Report and the national population forum in November 2011. I would like to urge learn more about our own population issues.

Lastly, I wish the leaders of Party-Government, all Lao ethnic population and those who are in-country and overseas happiness, healthy and to unify to ensure sustainable development and preserve quality human resource of the country.

Source: kpl

Posted by samakomlao on 4:43 PM. Filed under Education, Laos . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Feel free to leave a response