Demography issues debated at Algerian Cultural Centre in Paris
PARIS – Medicine professor Malika Ladjali gave Thursday evening in the Algerian Cultural Centre (CCA) a lecture on the demography issues in Algeria.
She presented a retrospective on the country’s policy of demography regulation, by the opening of centers of mother and infant protection (PMI) and proposing contraceptive service to the women.
During this debate, attended by Consulate General of Algeria in Paris, Rachid Ouali, CCA director, novelist Yasmina Khadra, and members of the national scientific community in France, this professor in gynecology recalled that the first years after Independence witnessed high rates of population growth, a phenomenon due to change in the social and economic fields.
Since the 1970s, the Algerian health services have developed child-spacing activities throughout the national territory.
The professor then noted that in 1983, a national program to population growth control was adopted by the government, noting that population censuses are drawn every ten years.
“Between the 1966 and 1977 censuses, growth rate is very high around 3%. Between 1977 and 1987 it fell to 2.27%. The 1987 census confirms the country’s demographic transition,” said Professor Ladjali.
She also noted that between 1998 and 2008’s, the rate was the lowest, at 1.6% while the late 90’s, marked a turning point underscored by the emergence of new patterns of marriage and fertility and a new standard of family configuration.
“In 2000, Professor Ladjali said, the birth rate is lower, i.e. 19.76%, a total of 600 000 live births.” The latest 2008 census data reveal a population of 34 million inhabitants.
The age at marriage is increasingly late. It is at 29.3 (32 Jijel and in Tizi Ouzou, 26 in Illizi), “she said.
The evolution of marriages increased from 158,300 in 1998 to 341,300 in 2009. The contraceptive prevalence rate is 61.5% with little difference between rural and urban areas, said Ladjali, indicating that live births number is rising again and exceeds 800 000 births in contradiction with falling fertility rates.
Pr. Malika Ladjali stressed the fundamental role of woman in the implementation of the child spacing policy, marked by the importance of women education level, consideration of fertility rate and late age of marriage.
Professor Ladjali is also PhD in Education (USA). In addition to her professional career, this lady has greatly contributed to the establishment of the flagship programs of maternal and child health and birth spacing.
She has also worked on problems of health and development with WHO, UNESCO, UNFPA, UNAIDS and the World Bank and also worked in improving the health of women in many African countries
Source: APS : Algérie Presse Service
