Post: Sustain Campaign To Curb Cultural Practices

The National Council for Population and Development (NCPD) is now calling on all duty-bearers in Garissa County to sustain their campaign to rid the region of cultural practices that hinder women's empowerment.NCPD Director General Dr. Mohamed Abey said early marriages, Gender Based Violence (GBV) and teenage pregnancy should be tackled head-on if young girls and women are to access opportunities offered by the government and other agencies.Dr. Amey noted that retrogressive cultural practices are hindering women from competing with their male counterparts for resources meant to improve their living standards.'The government and other state agencies are offering equal opportunities to all Kenyans, irrespective of their gender, but retrogressive cultural practices have denied our women these opportunities,' Dr. Amey said.'I want to urge all duty-bearers to play their part in ensuring that these retrogressive cultural practices are eliminated because they are illegal in the first place,' he added.The d irector general said that there is need to continuously educate the general population on why these harmful cultural practices will lock out the women population in the region from accessing opportunities provided for by the government in empowering them.Dr. Amey was speaking today at a Garissa hotel during the dissemination of the National Population Policy contained in Sessional Paper No. 1 of 2023.The policy aims to provide policy directions on the management of population and development issues in the country so as to improve the quality of life and wellbeing of the people.He said Northern Kenya population dynamics is totally different from the rest of the country.'The poverty level here is also very high, with more than 60 per cent below the poverty line. The dependency ratio is also a big issue. Matters to do with maternal mortality are also quite high,' he noted.Dr. Amey said that population dynamics are governed by the changing population size and age structure through changes in mortality, fertility, and migration. These three fundamental factors he added are, in turn, closely tied to development progress.Garissa County Commissioner Mohamed Mwabudzo, while reiterating that population issues are central to economic development, regretted that the large population of young people has been largely viewed as a problem rather than an opportunity to spur Kenya's socio-economic development, calling on a change of mindset.'Our greatest resource as a country is its population. However, having a resource and making good use of it is another thing,' Mwabudzo said.The county commissioner took issue with the poor planning in Garissa town, adding that for a town to grow, proper planning was a major requirement.Abdishukri Jelle from MUHURI challenged the NCPD to stop only focusing on broader demographic trends and general socio-economic factors, noting that they should also address specific issues such as abductions, enforced disappearances, and extrajudicial killings.These issues, he noted, can hav e profound impacts on the population and economy, including psychological trauma, the loss of a workforce, and the destabilisation of communities.'Highlighting these aspects in National policies could lead to more comprehensive strategies for addressing the underlying causes and effects of such human rights violations. It might also encourage more robust data collection, support for the affected families, and international collaboration to prevent and respond to these serious issues,' he noted.During the workshop, the stakeholders developed a specific action plan for the county.Source: Kenya News Agency