Chakwera commissions the ninth African Conference with a call for solutions

Malawi President Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera, on Monday opened the 9th African Population Conference at the colourful event which took place at the magnificent Bingu International Convention Centre (BICC) in Lilongwe.

President Chakwera arrived at the Centre alongside the visiting Prime Minister of Iceland, Bjarni Benediktsson, who arrived in the country on Sunday on a five – day official visit.

Speaking during the function the president said the conference was so important because will help stakeholders to find solution.

He said in Africa there is need to identify and utilize strengths in social, cultural, entrepreneurial, artistic, and linguistic intelligence, than looking down on ourselves because of people who are always telling Africa to focus on working on the strengths which is not there.

“I am therefore looking forward to this conference being a solution-oriented conference, not a competition on who can complain about Africa the loudest. This is a new Malawi for a new Africa, and we are too busy focusing on
finding solutions to waste any time on meetings that add no value to the creation of the Africa We Want,” he said.

African Population Conference (APC) is the largest scientific meeting on population issues organised every four years by the Union for African Population Studies (UAPS).

The main aim of the conference is to examine the state of knowledge gaps regarding various population and development issues facing the African continent.

The conference also offers an opportunity for a diverse set of stakeholders, researchers, policymakers, representatives of civil society, regional and international organisations as well as non-governmental organisations to explore ways and means of applying research evidence generated to improve the wellbeing of the African people.

The APC is a hallmark event of UAPS . To date, the Union has successfully organised eight conferences in various parts of the continent.

This conference has previously been hosted in etight other states whch includes ; Senegal, Cote de Ivore , South Africa just to mention afew countries.