BUJUMBURA, July 11 (Xinhua) -- As the world Tuesday marked the World Population Day, the Burundian government is proud of the step reached on using contraceptive methods to controls births, the Burundian health minister said Tuesday in a statement.
"In collaboration with our partners like the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), we were able to go from 2.7 percent of women using contraceptive methods in 2005 to 42 percent of women using such methods in 2017 in Burundi," Burundian Public Health and AIDS Control Minister Josiane Nijimbere said in the statement.
She said the progress was made thanks to the Burundian government policy launched in 2006 of free medical care for pregnant women and children aged less than five years.
"This world population day is an opportunity to request Burundian people to reduce their fecundity speed. From Burundi's independence in 1962 until now, the population has grown four times. As 90 percent of Burundian citizens live on agriculture, this is an obstacle to development for a small country," Nijimbere said.
With a population estimated at over 11 million people, Burundi's total area is 27,834 square kilometers.
She added that Burundi developed a policy on reducing the population growth since 2011, underlining that the policy eyes the reduction of the fecundity speed up to 2 percent by 2025.
"The policy also provides birth spacing and focuses on teaching young people about contraceptive methods as they are the country's future," said the minister. Enditem
