Introduction

The National Conference on Population will be held over two consecutive days June 9-10, 2008. More than 2500 local and international figures who are interested in this issue will participate in this conference. They will discuss the dimensions of the over-population problem in Egypt.

The Conference will be held in cooperation between the National Council on Population headed by the Prime Minister, the Ministries of Health and Information as well as the National Democratic Party.

The National Conference on Population is seeking a societal consensus on the national goals of population policy and the strategies which is aiming at rationalizing the growth rates population.

Population problem in Egypt started since 1930s when Egypt's mufti announced in 1937 that Islam allows family planning. In 1953, National Committee for Population Issues had been established but in 1957, it turned to be a Non-Governmental Organization (NGOs).

However, the real birth of the population policy in Egypt was in 1962 through the announcement of the first official governmental support for family planning followed by the establishment of the Council for Family Planning in 1965 and the national program for family planning in 1966.

The birthrate reached 1.9 million annually and 76.5 million people currently census Egyptians while the census to 93 million by 2020.

These figures have made President Mubarak decide to announce the National Strategic Plan of the population in Egypt till 2012 and this plan seeks to modernize Egypt's population policies in order to fit this period and the next phase of development by determining the roles of ministries, authorities and various bodies concerned with the problem of population so that the overall rate of reproduction will reach to 2.4 children per woman in 2012 as a national goal.

Moreover, the overall birth rate will reach to the replacement rate which is 2.1 children per woman in 2017 as a strategic objective