Deputy Minister of Health: The urgent plan to improve population characteristics in order to enhance efforts to achieve national goals
Dr. Abla Al-Alfi, Deputy Minister of Health for Population and Family Development Affairs and Head of the National Population Council, participated in the celebration of the end of the 2024 joint work program that aims to protect and promote reproductive rights in Egypt, which was organized by the National Council for Human Rights in cooperation with the United Nations Population Fund. This is within the framework of supporting national efforts to implement international recommendations related to human rights.
Alfi indicated that this event reflects a qualitative shift in dealing with the population file, as the focus has moved from reducing births to the comprehensive concept of reproductive rights, Which laid its roots at the Population Conference in Egypt in 1994, adding that the population issue is discussed today from a human rights perspective based on spacing between successive pregnancies, to guarantee the rights of women to obtain optimal care, and the rights of the child during the first thousand days of his life, in a way that enhances his positive upbringing and care. She also called for disseminating this human rights perspective and increasing awareness of the importance of spacing pregnancy to improve population characteristics and reduce diseases such as stunting, autism, obesity, anemia, and poor academic achievement, stressing the necessity of Integrating girls’ rights into the media.
Alfi stressed that supporting women begins from the period of pregnancy, regardless of the sex of the fetus, stressing the importance of confronting the psychological violence that some women are exposed to when pregnant with a girl, and explained that this violence leaves an impact It affects girls deeply from early childhood, as they are treated as a less important gender, which reinforces feelings of inferiority. She also touched on the need to address the medical violence that women face, whether by not listening to their pain or by performing inappropriate caesarean sections. Medically justified.
Alfi explained that Ambassador Moushira Khattab, President of the National Council for Human Rights, called for the adoption of the term “child marriage” Instead of “minors,” due to the accuracy of the term in expressing the phenomenon of early marriage, she pointed out that this trend has become part of the National Population and Development Strategy, which includes expanding the establishment of girls’ schools in the middle and secondary levels, to prevent them from dropping out of education, in parallel with the issuance of Legislative recommendations criminalizing the marriage of children under the age of 18 and activating penalties on parents and contract editors.
She confirmed that the Ministry of Health and Population has made remarkable progress in strengthening family development efforts. The Egyptian Ministry of Health, by disseminating integrated family counseling in primary health care units and obstetrics and gynecology hospitals.
She pointed out that there are 3,500 active counseling rooms in 21 governorates, with continued efforts to cover all health units, ensuring support for building A strong and conscious family that protects the rights of the mother and the child.
The Deputy Minister concluded her speech by praising the great support provided by the political leadership, the Prime Minister and his deputy to human development efforts, stressing that the plan The urgent need to improve population characteristics in areas with low indicators is considered a role model in ensuring reproductive rights for all, in a way that enhances integration between various state agencies to achieve this national goal.
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