Peshawar: The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), in collaboration with the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), on Thursday convened a meeting of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Media Coalition on Reproductive Health and Family Planning to promote evidence-based reporting on population, health and development issues.
The meeting, supported by the Government of the Netherlands, brought together journalists, researchers and development experts to share updated data on youth, population, family planning and child marriage in the province.
Speaking on the occasion, UNFPA Programme Specialist Dr. Shahid Khan said the agency was working with government and civil society partners to help reduce preventable maternal deaths, expand access to family planning and eliminate gender-based violence.
SDPI Deputy Executive Director (Research) Dr. Sajid Amin said KP’s population had reached nearly 41 million in the 2023 census and was estimated to have crossed 42 million, stressing that rapid population growth, unemployment and poverty posed serious development challenges.
SDPI Deputy Executive Director (Policy) Dr. Shafqat Munir urged journalists to highlight population issues through data-driven reporting, saying population dynamics were closely linked with climate change, resource management and economic development.
The participants also identified potential investigative reporting topics on youth, population, family planning and child marriage for the coming months.