Accra, Dec. 22, GNA - The National Population Council (NPC) on Thursday launched selected publications aimed at integrating population issues into the national development agenda.

The publications which included a bi-annual newsletter of the National Population Council, Fact Sheets I; Fact Sheet II; Fact Sheet III and a book entitled "Population Integration Models" was in accordance with the NPC's commitment to make available to policy makers, planners and the general public simple and user friendly population information.

Mrs Esther Yaa Apewokin, Executive Director of NPC, launching the publications reiterated the Council's commitment to pursue a population management agenda that would facilitate economic growth, wealth creation and poverty reduction. She said: "Accurate, timely and well packaged information is an indispensable tool for programming for the individual, community and country."

Mrs Apewokin speaking on the theme: "Population information; a tool for effective programming, planning, monitoring and evaluation" stated the Council's vision which is to secure a better quality of life for the people of Ghana through effective population management and expressed the hope that the data would be put to good use.

The bi-annual newsletter dubbed "Population Platform" has information on population issues and information on United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the major partners.

The Facts Sheets discuss the National, Regional and District trends of the population of Ghana in addition to the trends in fertility and mortality rates.

Mr Steve Grey, Acting Director for Programmes, Research and Training at NPC, said the Population Integration Models would provide skills for integrating population into development. He said NPC was organizing training programmes for various district assemblies to enable them to put the publication to good use. Mr Makene Kane, UNFPA Representative, noted that adequate and quality information was an effective tool in the monitoring and evaluation of programmes, saying; "information is the key to the survival of any institution".

He called for regular production of the newsletter and its extension to the local community with relevant data and language that could be understood by the people

Mr Kane said there was the need for stronger collaboration between NPC and other government agencies. Dr Grace Bediako, Government Statistician, said the production of population publications could help t address one of the biggest problems in the statistical system, which she said was the under utilization of data.

She said producers of statistics should make data available for potential users and urged users to place value on statistics. Dr Bediako pledged the support of the Service for the NPC and said the full benefit of the publications could not be realized if the data were not put to further use.

"The National Population Council has been an ideal partner, and their success in launching these publications demonstrate that it is possible to overcome certain limitations of the national statistical system by being proactive," she said.