A family competition was held in the town of Goris of Syunik marz, the southernmost region of Armenia, to mark the World Population Day 2017.

 

The event was organized by UNFPA Armenia Country Office and Women's Development Resource Center Foundation, a long time partner of UNFPA Armenia. Anna Hovhannisyan, Project Coordinator for UNFPA "Support to Implementation of Population Policies" Project and Ms. Ruzanna Torozyan, Director of Women's Development Resource Center Foundation, greeted the participants and congratulated them on the occasion.

 

 

Families from three communities of Syunik region, Goris, Tatev and Tegh, competed with each other. The last two shared the first prize followed by the family from the Goris community. 

 

 

The aim of the family competition was to stress that everyone is important in a family, and that there are no more imortant or less important roles in a family, thus underlining the importance of cooperation. At the same time, the goal was to show that important issues, including issues concerning the health and prosperity of a family, including family planning, should be handled together. 

 

 

In 1989, the then-Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) recommended that 11 July be observed as World Population Day. An outgrowth of the Day of Five Billion, marked on 11 July 1987, the Day seeks to focus attention on the urgency and importance of population issues, particularly in the context of overall development. The Day was first marked on 11 July 1990 in more than 90 countries. By resolution 45/216 of 21 December 1990, the United Nations General Assembly decided to continue World Population Day and activities to enhance awareness of population issues, including their links to the environment and development.

 

 

Investing in family planning is investing in the health and rights of women and couples worldwide. These investments also yield economic and other gains that can propel development forward and are thus critical to the success of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its accompanying 17 Sustainable Development Goals.