BuaNews (Tshwane)
Gabi Khumalo
25 November 2008
Pretoria — The Department of Social Development will next week host a public seminar which will focus on the changes in population and development trends in South Africa since the implementation of the Population Policy 10 years ago.
The three-day seminar, which starts on 1 December, will take place at the Reserve Bank Conference Centre and the public are invited to attend.
"The purpose of the ten-year review is to make a countrywide assessment of the state of affairs with population and development trends and dynamics in the context of the policy goal, objectives and strategies and to highlight issues of major concern," the department said.
The seminar will focus on the overview of population trends and dynamics in South Africa; sexual and reproductive health and rights; HIV and AIDS; gender equity and equality; population, environmental and development; children, families and households; poverty and inequality among other things.
According to the department the 10-year review process should be concluded by March 2009, when the current five-year strategy on population and development (2004-2009) also comes to an end.
"Evidence generated from the 10-year review should serve as a basis for designing the next five-year policy implementation strategy, covering the period 2009-2014 and linking up with government priorities for the next five years," the department said.
The Population Policy for South Africa, which was adopted in Parliament in 1998, contains a comprehensive and multi-sectoral framework for addressing population issues in the context of sustainable development.
According to the department, a basic tenet of the policy approach is that population concerns are considered as multi-faceted and integral to all development planning meaning that government departments and institutions have the responsibility to integrate population issues in their policy-making and planning processes.
"This would ensure that population and development concerns are purposefully addressed through line function programmes and projects in the various spheres of government and in collaboration with stakeholders in the private sector."
Since 1998, government departments and institutions have designed and implemented a wide range of programmes and projects that address population concerns, directly or indirectly.
One of the key functions of the Population and Development Unit in the department is to oversee policy implementation at national and sub-national levels and to monitor and valuate progress made with policy implementation through the activities of other stakeholders.
The country-wide reporting process, the department said, kicked off in the middle of 2007, when Provincial Population Units were involved in a process to determine the scope of the country-wide policy implementation report by identifying key thematic areas which represent the chapters of the report.
According to the department the thematic areas were derived from the policy concerns and strategies and link with the major focus areas contained in the Programme of Action that flowed from the International Conference on Population and Development, 1994, as well as the themes of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
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