The Gambia and the rest of the world will on Saturday 11th of July commemorate world population day, a press release from the Population Secretariat has revealed.

The theme for this year is on "Responding to the economic crisis: Investing in women is a smart choice." According to the release, the objective of the celebration is to create awareness on contemporary population and development issues and to showcase achievements made by partners in the implementation of the National Population Programme (NPP).

"The day's inception in 1989 was endorsed as an opportunity to build better awareness of population issues and their relation to development," the release stated. "This is the 20th World Population Day, the 40th Anniversary of UNFPA and also the 15th anniversary of the historic International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) that guides our work at UNFPA," the press release further revealed.

According to the release, since 1990, governments and their national partners have been marking World Population Day with a variety of activities and events focusing on the importance of population to overall development strategies. "The programme of activities will begin from 10th of July 2009 through to 4th July 2009.  Activities will include a march past by school children and voluntary organisation, musical entertainments, drama performances and speeches by various regional authorities in Western and North Bank regions respectively," the release indicated. "Celebrations to mark the day will be held at Barfrow, Mandinaba and Farafenni in the North Bank Region," the release concluded.

On the eve of the celebration, statements will be delivered by the vice president, Her Excellency Madam Isatou Njie-Saidy, and the UNDP resident coordinator, who will deliver the statement of the executive director of UNFPA, Thoraya Ahmed Obaid.