ISLAMABAD, Oct 29: The government will soon launch a six-year “Reproductive Health Project” across Pakistan to reduce population growth rate from 2.1 per cent to 1.8 per cent and total fertility rate from 5 per cent to 3.5 per cent.

Official sources told Dawn here on Tuesday that the project supported by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) would initially cost Rs631 million.

The officials concerned admit that Pakistan’s rapid population growth rate of 2.1 per cent per annum has increased poverty and negated the impact of development in the last decade.

The sources said the successive governments failed to adequately reduce population growth rate, despite billions of rupees funding by donor agencies.

Pakistan is much behind India, Sri Lank, Bangladesh, China, Thailand and Indonesia that have current population growth rate of 1.8 per cent, 1.3 per cent, 1.8 per cent, 1 per cent, 0.9 per cent and 1.6 per cent respectively.

The ministry of health has submitted a reproductive health project to the Planning Commission for approval, which may be launched within this year.

The plan also seeks to reduce infant mortality rate from 89 per cent to 70 per cent per 1,000 live births and increase use of rural health services by 70 per cent at the end of the project. It also aims to provide quality care and increase access to services to the under served men and women in the poorest communities by upgrading reproductive health facilities and human resource development.

The officials concede that health status indicators have not improved much over the past decade. The maternal mortality ratio is still very high due to poor birth practices at community, primary and hospital levels. Much more work is needed at all levels to make motherhood safer. Better maternal care, they say, will substantially reduce infant mortality, including that caused by infections and malnutrition.

The project provides a plan for developing an umbrella programme within the institutional infrastructure of the ministry of health and the ministry of population welfare in collaboration with the non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

It includes several distinct interventions such as family planning, child survival activities and prevention of reproductive tract/infections/sexually transmitted diseases, with the involvement of both women and men.

The overall goal of the project is to respond to the government’s commitments for reproductive health of the population and contribute to the economic and social development of the country.

The project will mainly focus on improving the skills for four out of nine components of the national rural health support programme.

The project will also promote awareness about reproductive health and create a more conducive environment through advocacy among specific target groups using interpersonal communication skills development.