Parliament this week dedicated time to discuss the issue of population growth in relation to national development as envisioned in the Vision 2020.

Rwanda has a high population density, requiring the need to control the rate of population growth by way of family planning. Having a manageable population in relation to available resources is a prerequisite for sustainable development.

Indeed efforts have already been made to encourage families to limit the number of children per family to three. This is commendable but should not just stop at that. A large population requires a lot of resources to feed it.

Rwanda is a country that has got limited resources, including land, needed to support a big population. What is imperative is to understand that most of the people in Rwanda are still peasants who may have a limited appreciation of the need for family planning.

Therefore, whereas policies are put in place to promote family planning, it is important to sensitize the masses about the necessity of such a project.

This is where people’s representatives like the parliamentarians, local council leaders, opinion leaders and others come in.

This is important because many people still hang on to traditional values, which may have already lost relevance. Moreover, with advancement in health care and general standards of living, no one needs to worry about the ‘risk’ of having few children, and losing them prematurely.

This used to be an issue for many peasant families in the past, but cannot be an excuse today.

Ends