Ghana’s increasing reputation in Africa as a stable democracy is one that makes many Ghanaians proud when they are compared with the league of other African Nations. In this blossoming democracy, several issues are threatening its future stability and prosperity. Chief among the issues is its rapid unbridled population growth that seems to have several ramifications on infrastructure, economy, politics, society and culture.
Currently, Ghana does not have a strict policy either regulating births or incentivizing fewer births per woman. Its current birth rates according to official statistics stands at 4.2 births per woman, which is more than hundred percent above the natural replacement levels i.e. two births per couple.
To put this into perspective, the population of Ghana was around 15 million in 1990 and official forecasts indicate that the country’s population will hit over 30 million in 2020. In other words, within three decades, Ghana is experiencing what demographers call population explosion.
While it is important for all persons to enjoy their sexuality and reproduce, it remains critical that people’s reproductive choices and realities can either be a blessing or a curse for any given country. This is why it is important for health policy institutions to be weary of the risk involved in a population that is spiraling out of control without a deliberate policy to support women and girls to make informed reproductive choices to avoid unwanted and teenage pregnancies.
According to the 2014 Demographic and Health Survey, 14 percent of women age 15-19 have begun childbearing making children become parents of other children resulting in the further widening of the base of Ghana’s population pyramid.
Root factors pushing up the figures in seemingly uncontrollable levels include unmet need for family planning, cultural and religious values on reproduction, unwanted and unintended pregnancies and more importantly teenage pregnancies among others.
According to the 2014 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey, 30 percent of married women and 42 percent of unmarried women who are sexually active have an unmet need for family planning which implies that they are unable to space their children or avoid pregnancy by choice.
Almost all teenage pregnancies are unwanted and unintended or in cases of child marriage, criminal. It is therefore crucial for the state to focus on empowering teenage girls and women to demand and enjoy their rights including their right to access quality information on their sexual and reproductive health and rights in order to protect themselves and make informed choices about their sexuality.
In most parts of rural Ghana, traditionally, men and boys control women and girls and have made the latter a vulnerable population. Providing educational and economic opportunities for rural girls and women is one sure way of empowering them to own and control their bodies and fertility.
Making comprehensive sexuality education available for all adolescents is one of the surest ways of tackling the rapid population growth rate in a sustainable and effective manner because girls can delay child birth and enjoy an improved quality of life before they decide to bear children.
The reproductive issues that women are confronted with today started when they were girls. Therefore, in order to sustainably manage our population, girls must be at the pivot of development interventions and in the foreseeable future, Ghana will reap enormous benefits from its population.
The right and only time to make real investments in girls is now and time will eventually reward Ghana with the benefits of fewer children enjoying the highest quality of life possible with available resources. There will be enough schools and hospitals for everyone. There will be decent jobs and good income for most families. And if those right investments are made, Ghana will benefit the most.