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Pakistan's low sociodemographic profile has changed dramatically since the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development, said the Minister for Population Welfare and Science and Technology, HE Begum Sayda Abida Hussain, during her statement at the Forum. Based on the population census of 1998, Pakistan has an annual population growth rate of 2.3%, she said. The decline may be attributed to changes in married patterns and a rapid reduction in marital fertility, she added. The contraceptive prevalence rate has gone up from only 2% in the early 1990s to about 27% in 1998. Meeting the demand for reproductive health services, reducing maternal, infant and child mortality, and promoting gender equality are high priorities for her government, she informed the participants in the Forum. In line with this priority, the Government of Pakistan has developed a new population and development policy and is working to improve the education and status of women, lower fertility, increase contraceptive prevalence, and reduce infant and maternal mortality, she told the meeting. Pakistan is expanding reproductive health services in the rural and urban areas through community-based organizations, she said. Some 50,000 women workers now provide counseling and other services to women at their doorstep. Before concluding her address, she called on donors' increased support for ICPD implementation. "The full implementation of the ICPD agenda requires resources that are beyond the capacity of a developing country like Pakistan," she said.
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