The Department of Social Development will on 23 and 24 July 2009, celebrate World Population Day. The commemoration will be two fold, on the 23rd there will be a seminar at Enkululekweni Complex, WSU, and Mthatha. The seminar will be emphasising on the relevance and urgency of population issues like poverty amongst women, women migration and illiteracy.
On the 24th there will be a community event at Mdeni Administrative Area, Qumbu. Both events will commence at 10h00. World Population Day is an annual event celebrated throughout the world on 11 July. Its purpose is to raise awareness on the importance of the linkage between population and socio-economic development. This day was highlighted when on 11 July 1987 the world population reached five billion people, and twelve years later, in 1999, the world population passed the six billion mark.
This year the department will focus on the most effective economic agents of change:
Women: The Department on this day will rally and call upon communities to protect women's ability to earn an income, keep their daughters in school and obtain reproductive health information and services, including family planning.
Effective planning requires evidence based decision making which in turn requires planning. Research and population dynamics inform the planning of departmental interventions in all our target groups, poverty reduction and other departmental interventions. Population research also looks at migration and its effects on service delivery; youth and substance abuse and an impact assessment of foster care programmes of the department. The budget for all of this is R4, 458 million.
For more information contact:
Mr Gcobani Maswana
Cell: 082 821 7410
Issued by: Department Social Development, Eastern Cape Provincial Government
20 July 2009
Source: Department Social Development, Eastern Cape Provincial Government
(http://www.socdev.ecprov.gov.za)
