This year World Population Day that is marked on July 11 focuses on teenage pregnancy, which is becoming a sensitive issue worldwide. Contacted by IPN, deputy representative of the UN Population Fund in Moldova Boris Gilca said the lack of information about reproductive health and parent migration represent the main causes of this phenomenon.
Boris Gilca said that the young people in Moldova continue to be uninformed and unprotected. They do not have access to information about a healthy lifestyle. “Moldova is mainly on the same level as the neighboring countries. The teenage pregnancy indicators are comparable, but this should not make us unconcerned,” he stated.
He also said that it is inadmissible for the Moldovan young people to remain disadvantaged because the state does not take care to ensure their access to education of a high quality about sexual and reproductive health. The investments in health and education, including in young people, should not be regarded as a burden, but as strategic long-term investments for the county’s sustainable development.
The demographic trends are another topical problem in Moldova. “Low fertility and aging are two serious problems. But when we speak about population, we should not refer only to the number of people. It is very important, especially in our circumstances, to assess the quality of the human capital. That’s why investing in population is the most efficient method of ensuring the sustainable development of any society,” said Boris Gilca.
A country program for 2013-2017, which envisions more involvement opportunities for the youth, was designed within the UN Population Fund. At world level, the UNFPA will launch a global report on teenage pregnancy in November. “We are waiting for these data because, despite being a European country, Moldova still faces many problems in this respect. Regretfully, there are unwanted pregnancies both in towns and villages, but the number of such cases in rural areas is higher,” said the deputy representative of the UN Population Fund in Moldova.
World Population Day was instituted by the UN in 1987, when the world’s population reached 5 billion.
