Egypt's Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly emphasized the need to incorporate family planning education into curricula, at a Ministerial Group for Human Development meeting. This step aims to achieve population balance and involves religious discourse, civil society organizations, and media messages aligned with the state's goals. This came during the meeting of the National Population Council on Tuesday, in the presence of the Ministers of Health, Industry, Transport, Endowments, Education, Higher Education, Labour, Culture, Housing, Justice, and Investment, the head of the Public Mobilization and Statistics Agency, and several relevant officials.
The prime minister also stressed the importance of the steps being taken to provide suitable job opportunities for women and provide them with greater sources of income, as they will have a significant positive impact on the success of family planning efforts.
Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, deputy prime minister for human development and minister of health and population, indicated that a large part of the work of the Ministerial Group for Human Development will focus primarily on the population issue, pointing out that there are many procedures and steps adopted by the ministries and authorities concerned with this file, working collectively on this file had a positive impact.
According to Abdel Ghaffar, a noticeable decrease in birth rates was recorded, and a decrease in death rates was observed, which reflects the extent of the state's interest in improving health care for citizens.
During the meeting, the Minister of Health presented the most prominent efforts taken by the Ministry in the field of the population issue, explaining that the National Population and Development Strategy 2023-2030 had been updated, with the preparation of 27 population plans under the Regional Planning Guide consistent with the National Population and Development Strategy, which represents an important step towards achieving Objectives of the National Population and Development Strategy 2023-2030.
Osama Al-Azhari, minister of endowments, pointed out that there has been a discourse that he described as "negative" and "erroneous" that has been spreading since the seventies that having many children is considered a religious duty, pointing out that work will be done during the coming period on intensive training for imams of mosques and endowments, to In descending order of reproductive indicators.
Al-Azhari said that awareness-raising will be intensified in the governorates with the highest birth rates, to deliver a scientific culture and legal rooting to address the issues of population increase, in addition to working to increase awareness and educate rural women leaders religiously on this issue.
