World Population Day - 11 July 2011

The Population Media Centre (PMC) invites you to commemorate World Population Day.

July 11th marks the day where we, as a world, come together and shine a light on various population issues such as the importance of family planning and gender equality, ending poverty, improving maternal health, and upholding human rights. Addressing each of these issues is critical to achieving a healthy and environmentally balanced world.

Join the drive to drawing attention to one of the world's most pressing issues. Every year we add nearly 80 million people to our planet, often in countries that are already struggling to provide for their current populations. If we truly want to improve people's lives and help to care for the planet itself, we must join together to address this critical issue.

The PMC's work is dedicated to solving these problems each and every day. PMC is developing highly engaging dramas around the world that show people the value of sending girls to school, delaying the age of marriage and childbearing, improving the status of women, the importance of family planning, and the benefits of smaller families for each family, community, and the world. The PMC's programmes are locally managed, produced, and broadcast to ensure cultural sensitivity, and also, because we know that the most significant change always comes from within. The United Nation's (UN) theme for this year's World Population Day is "Everyone Counts." Every person on this planet counts and must be counted in order to truly understand where we stand as a world today. The UN is drawing attention to the extraordinary value of good demographic data to inform our decisions and help us come up with effective solutions.

The PMC stands firmly behind this belief, and that is why the PMC uses extensive audience research at every step of our process. Its programmes are designed for the people and therefore must be designed to meet their needs and interests. "Everyone Counts" also draws attention to the value of each person and the tremendous potential they hold. The PMC states that it believes in change, because it witnesses it each and every day through the powerful letters it receives from women, men, girls, and boys around the world who have made changes to their own lives after listening to the PMC dramas. And these letters are backed up by the results of the nationwide surveys that are conducted to measure the impact of the PMC's work, which time and again point to the tremendous impact of PMC's innovative strategy for behavior change.

World Population Day was founded in 1989 by the UN to draw attention to the important need to stabilise human population numbers so we can live in balance with the earth's resources and improve the health and well-being of people around the world.

Source: Population Media Centre