World Population Day is observed annually on 11 July to draw attention to the urgency and significance of population issues.
This year’s theme is ‘A World of 8 Billion: Towards a Resilient Future for All – Harnessing Opportunities and Ensuring Rights and Choices for All’.
In honour of the occasion, the UNFPA Namibia country office was set to officially release the annual State of World Population Report (SWOP) 2022, titled ‘Seeing the Unseen: The Case for Action in the Neglected Crisis of Unintended Pregnancy’ on Monday.
Since 1978, the report has shed light on emerging issues in sexual and reproductive health and rights, bringing them into the mainstream and examining the challenges and opportunities they present for international and national development.
According to UNFPA Executive Director Natalia Kanem, the goal is to have a world where every pregnancy is desired. This goal is a central pillar of UNFPA’s mission.
“Every human being has the right to bodily autonomy,” she said, “and perhaps nothing is more fundamental to exercising that right than the ability to choose whether, when, and with whom to become pregnant.”
According to Kanem, the topic of this report is difficult, in part because it is so common and nearly everyone has an experience to draw on, whether they have experienced an unintended pregnancy themselves or know someone who has.
She went on to say that for some, it is a personal crisis, while for others, it is a blessing in disguise.
In Namibia, according to the UNFPA, 45 per cent of women and girls are aware of all three methods of birth control available to them. Only 50 per cent of contraceptive-using women are however informed about what to do if they experience side effects from the contraceptives.
In some of the countries studied, a large proportion of sterilised women were not informed that the procedure was permanent. In Namibia, this figure stands at 12 per cent.
The report stated that quality of care, method availability, side effects, stigma, and other factors all contribute to users discontinuing a contraceptive method even though they do not want to become pregnant.
Further analysis is required in areas with high rates of method discontinuation to understand the reasons for discontinuation and whether users are able to switch to other reliable methods.
In Namibia, 8 per cent discontinue the use of contraceptives while still at risk of unintended pregnancy (for non-fertility reasons) and 20 per cent discontinue for fertility reasons (pregnant, intend to get pregnant).