Dr Victor Bampoe, Deputy Minister of Health has called on Ghanaians to embrace family planning as a way of controlling the rapid population growth with its accompanying impacts on national development.

Rapid population growth has also been identified as having negative impacts on overstretched health systems and other resources and amenities, Dr Bampoe said at the launch of the 2015 Family Planning Week celebration on Monday in Accra.

The National Family Planning Week is celebrated throughout the country every year in September, to promote family planning as one of the most cost-effective interventions for improving maternal health and development.

The launch marks the beginning of a weeklong celebration of family planning activities to increase awareness among the general public on family planning and its benefits to the individual, families, communities and the country as a whole.

The theme for this year’s celebration is “Family Planning: Know your Options”. Other regional events and exhibitions of family planning products are expected to be held at lorry stations and communities throughout the country.

Dr Bampoe used the occasion to launch the National Condom and Lubricant Strategy and the Ghana Family Planning Costed Implementation Plan. These documents are expected to improve and accelerate family planning implementation in the country.

He explained that the National Family Planning Week celebration is a nationwide campaign to promote the vision of a situation where every pregnancy is wanted.

“Its mission is to improve awareness of contraception to enable every individual and couple to make informed decisions on sexual and reproductive health”.

Dr Bampoe said the general misconception that contraceptives are only for married and older people is not true, reiterating that family planning is available for single and young people too.

“Young or old, Family planning should be a simple and personal decision made by informed individuals or couple regarding how often and when to have children.

He said family planning has also been identified as a key factor in reducing high maternal mortality, and therefore there is the urgent need to ensure that family planning becomes an integral part of all development efforts in all sectors of government and society.

Dr Ebenezer Appiah Denkyira, Director General of Ghana Health Service (GHS), said this year’s celebration is the fifth to be marked in Ghana, and that government through Family Planning week is reaching out to the people with messages that would help reduce the ever increasing growth rate.

He urged community leaders as well as church leaders to organise family health education as a way of helping stem the tide of high population growth, adding, there are many socio-economic benefits that could be achieved when families are well planned.

Representatives from the UNFPA and USAID, main partners of the Family Planning week celebration in Ghana, expressed their commitment in ensuring that Ghana attained its family planning target to enable the country to achieve its demographic dividends.

Professor Naa John S. Nabila, President of the National House of Chiefs and Member, Council of State, who chaired the event asked the authorities to make family planning facilities more available to all, including sexually active students.