‘One-child’ policy should be adopted in Africa – President Al-Sisi

Egypt’s birth rate needs to be reduced by five times, according to President Al-Sisi.

Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the president of Egypt, has advised people to have a lot fewer children, claiming that the nation’s current birthrate will lead to a “catastrophe” for the North African nation.

Al-Sisi stated at the Global Congress on Population, Health and Development (PHDC), which began on Tuesday in Cairo, “We need 400,000 births annually.”

The president told Health and Population Minister Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, “I do not agree with your idea that having children is a matter of complete freedom,” according to AFP.

“Leaving their freedom to those who may not be aware of the scale of the challenge? The Egyptian state and the entire population will ultimately bear the cost, according to al-Sisi. “We need to organise this freedom, or it will result in disaster.”

He used China as an illustration, citing how it “succeeded in their population control” in the 1970s by enforcing a strict one-child policy. Beijing discontinued the measure in 2015, but has since promoted population expansion.

Population increase can “strain resources and infrastructure, resulting in health and social challenges,” according to PHDC conference materials.” A quickly expanding population “compromises the availability and quality of basic services including, health, education, and social security” and leads to the “rapid depletion of natural resources,” according to the documents.

Sponsors of the event include numerous UN agencies, USAID, and several significant pharmaceutical corporations. It started on Tuesday and will last until September 8.

With an estimated 113 million citizens, Egypt is the Arab country with the largest population. In 2022, it registered over 2.2 million births. Al-Sisi has emphasised the economic strains that the country’s population increase has put on it because it has been dependent on buying food from elsewhere.

Cairo has asked Russia for more investments as a method to address its economic problems. It will become a member of BRICS in January, joining the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, Argentina, and Iran.