Kampala — A decline in fertility rate among Ugandan women over the next 30 years can help slow the country's fast growing population, a medical doctor has said.

Speaking during district leaders meeting on population and development organised by the Population Secretariat and the UN Population Fund on Thursday in Kampala, Dr Chris Baryomunsi, the chairman of the parliamentary Forum on Population, Food security and Development, said the high fertility rate among Ugandan women, where on average, a mother gives birth to seven children in her lifetime, is driving the country's fast-growing population.

Contraceptive services

"This high fertility can be addressed by family planning and ensuring that women have access to contraceptive services. Despite efforts to promote family planning services, its uptake remains low," Dr Baryomunsi said.

The unmet need for family planning is 41 per cent, meaning that four in every 10 women in Uganda, would like to stop or limit childbirth but do not have access to services like contraceptives.

Mr Charles Zirarema, the acting director at the Population Secretariat, said the biggest concern for demographers and development experts, is the speed at which the population is growing.

With a current population of 31 million, demographers project that Uganda's population will reach 100 million by 2050. "We should do something to check this growth because it is already placing huge challenges of providing services. Whether fertility rates decline or not, the population will continue to grow,"Dr Baryomunsi revealed.

Mr Charles Zirarema, the acting director at the Population Secretariat, said the biggest concern for demographers and development experts, is the speed at which the population is growing.

"This is largely because of the high unmet need for family planning, low use of contraceptives and a high teenage pregnancy where one out of four girls, becomes pregnant between the ages of 13 and 19 years,"Mr Zirarema said.

Dr Baryomunsi said that one way to make family planning services available is to promote the role of village health teams who can distribute the commodities.

"One of the challenges why women and men do not use family planning services is the distance they have to walk to reach where the services are provided. So if we can empower village health teams to deliver the services where the people are, we would have helped many women," explained Dr Baryomunsi.