The Higher Council for Population approved, on Monday, 6 strategic recommendations, the most prominent of which is adopting the results of the 2024 general population and housing census as a database foundation for planning and obligating ministries to update their plans, as well as forming a permanent high committee to manage demographic transition, during the council's first session chaired by Prime Minister Ali Faleh Al-Zaydi.
The media office of the Prime Minister stated in a statement received by the Video News Agency that Prime Minister Ali Faleh Al-Zaydi chaired the first session of the Higher Council for Population in the presence of the Ministers of Education, Labor, Water Resources, Youth and Sports, Environment, the Secretary-General of the Council of Ministers, the head of the Kurdistan Regional Government representation in Baghdad, and several heads of bodies and general directors.
It added that the session witnessed a discussion of the resolutions of the seventh ordinary session of the Arab Council for Population and Development held in Baghdad, Iraq's role in supporting public activities, and the implementation of the National Committee for Population Policies regarding the session’s resolutions, along with discussing the overall report of the procedures and indicators achieved by the sectoral ministries involved in implementing international recommendations and national commitments.
The council recommended conducting a study to evaluate the National Family Planning Strategy and support programs aimed at reducing gaps in needs by 2030, increasing the number of health centers that provide family planning services, especially in rural and remote areas, and adopting a national program to enhance newborn care services to reduce mortality rates.
It clarified that the recommendations included the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs increasing the ceiling of loans granted to women and facilitating the procedures for granting them to support economic empowerment, studying the possibility of establishing a small projects support fund for females in coordination with the National Iraqi Women’s Department, in addition to forming a permanent high committee to manage demographic transition chaired by the Ministry of Planning that monitors age structure indicators and urban growth and submits annual reports to the council.