Huge Youths Military Recruitment Turnout, Policy Makers ‘Rude Shock’ —UNFPA Country Rep

By Innocent Daka

The huge number of youths who recently turned for recruitment in the Zambia army has awakened the country's policy makers to a 'shocking’ reality of population problems they are not willing to accept, says UNFPA country representative Duah Owusu-Sarfo.

Speaking to journalists at the opening of a four-day workshop on the role of the media in the UNFPA/GRZ 7^th country programme, Mr Owusu-Sarfo observed that Zambia faces population growth and development challenges.

However, he observed that leadership at all levels in the country lack proper understanding on the link between population issues and the relationship between population and development.

“If you interact with many policy makers, community leaders and planners in this country, you would observe a general lack of understanding of population issues,” Mr Owusu-Sarfo said.

He said some influential people are even heard indicating that Zambia has large tracts of land so Zambians can afford to increase the population growth of the country with abundant ease.

“I am sure that the sheer number of the youth who turned up recently to look for recruitment into the Zambian Army jolted most of us and brought to the fore some of the population and development challenges facing this country,” he said.

The UN envoy for population also noted that some of the country’s leaders do not even know the existence of the national population policy for the country.

He expressed concern that even planners in the country do not know the characteristics of the population and cannot integrate these characteristics into their work, “Yet the interventions of these planners are expected to benefit the population of this country”.

Mr Owusu-Sarfo called for effective communication of knowledge and information about the present opportunities and challenges if people are to adequately respond to them.

He pointed out that the rural poor people in Zambia have remained isolated from the traditional media and ICTs which would otherwise help improve their livelihoods.

He said strategic communication is needed for the success of public initiatives, but the communication sector remains underfunded and underutilised. “Too often communication is neglected and only incorporated into public development programmes as an after-thought”.

He mentioned that communication should be treated as an important development intervention in its own right and not merely a supporting role.

In the 7^th country programme that is being implemented from 2011-2015, the media has a component of providing interventions aimed at increased knowledge that will lead help among other things change sexual health behaviours to reduce HIV and empower couples to plan for their families as well as address maternal mortality which remains high in this Sub Saharan country of 13 million people.

He hoped that the workshop will prepare journalists drawn from Western Province to embark on unwavering professional crusade in promoting human rights including reproductive rights.

He also challenged the 18 journalists attending the workshop to advocate the mainstreaming of population and reproductive health rights into all development and poverty reduction initiatives within the framework of the MDGs.

This is the second training workshop for journalists that the University of Zambia has organised under the UNFPA/GRZ 7^th country programme. The first involved two groups of journalists from Luapula and North Western Provinces, where the UNFPA/GRZ programme is being implemented. 

"Zambia had 158, 805 females and 158, 592 males reach military significant age annually as 2010, At that time there were 2 948 291 females and 3, 041, 069 males available for military service, But manpower fit for military service was only 1, 688, 670 females and 1, 745, 656 males as per establishment of the same period" CIA World Factbook