Dr. Ejike addressing media at the meeting
As regards the high rate of maternal mortality and to improve reproductive health care in the country, Association for the Advancement of Family Planning (AAFP) has called on the federal government to invest more on family planning and introduce family planning policies.
As regards the high rate of maternal mortality and to improve reproductive health care in the country, Association for the Advancement of Family Planning (AAFP) has called on the federal government to invest more on family planning and introduce family planning policies.
Chairman AAFP, Dr. Ejike Oji, made this statement at the
Civil Society and Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) meeting with media on
mobilization for family planning in collaboration with the Partnership for
Advocacy in Child and Family Health in Nigeria (PACFaH), in Abuja, yesterday.
According to the AAFP, over the years no allotment has been
made to the ministry of health particularly for family planning and this has
therefore ranked Nigeria as the second largest country next to India with high
maternal deaths at childbirth.
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family planning programmes
Stakeholders call for more investments in family planning
programmes
As regards the high rate of maternal mortality and to improve
reproductive health care in the country, Association for the Advancement of
Family Planning (AAFP) has called on the federal government to invest more on
family planning and introduce family planning policies.
Chairman AAFP, Dr. Ejike Oji, made this statement at the
Civil Society and Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) meeting with media on
mobilization for family planning in collaboration with the Partnership for
Advocacy in Child and Family Health in Nigeria (PACFaH), in Abuja, yesterday.
According to the AAFP, over the years no allotment has been
made to the ministry of health particularly for family planning and this has
therefore ranked Nigeria as the second largest country next to India with high
maternal deaths at childbirth.
He noted that family planning improves the prosperity in a
nation alongside protect the lives of women who have been blessed with high
fertility rate, while calling on the government to take the issue of family
planning very seriously, spacing of children gives the woman the chance to
recover before she goes in for the next child, not forgetting the economic
situation within the country, he stressed.
According to Oji, the main focus of the organization are on
four key areas, but the most vital part is the need for partnership among Civil
Society Organization in Nigeria and by so advocate for better outcome for women
and children’s health in Nigeria.
He said: “Over the years, the allocation that is made to the
Federal Ministry of Health, there hasn’t been any allocation specifically for
issues of family planning. But for the past three to four years the Association
of Family Planning has been able to advocate to government to put money.
“Having said that, the money has not been released timely as
at when due and for the purchase of commodity. And one of the challenges we
have in Health Centre is that even when resources have been released for
commodities to be purchased, they haven’t been any money to provide for supply
and consumable of all these services for the women.
“About 16 per cent of Nigeria women said they wanted Family
Planning but they are not getting it because of these challenges, either the
commodities are not there and even when the commodities are there, making sure
that the commodities are supplied from the warehouses to the service delivery
centres is also absent.”
Oji added that the health of a woman is the health of a
nation and an effective family planning programme has a direct impact on the
economy of a nation as a whole.
Speaking earlier, representatives of AAFP, Chinwe Onumonu,
during her Presentation of the ‘Media Brief on the Case for Nigerian Government
to Invest in Family Planning to Save the Lives of our Women and Children’,
said, “ This Media brief seeks to explain the connection between the Family
Planning (FP) and the health of women and children, the economic growth of the
nation and how investing in FP can help achieve this. It prioritizes the
actions the media professionals can take to get government to invest in family
planning.”
She revealed: “Since the inception of FP in Nigeria, it has
been driven and funded totally by donors. The government of Nigeria committed
funds ($3million) to FP for the very first time in 2011, this was given on the
background that the total estimated cost of procuring only commodities from
2011- 2015 was about $50million.
“Currently the donors are still providing funding completely
for the most components of FP programme. FP has been universally recognized as
one of the key pillars and most cost effective means of achieving safe
motherhood.”
According to her family planning is a means to allow
individuals and couples to wait for and attain their desired number of children
and the spacing and the timing of their births.
Speaking was the Chairman of AAFP Board of Trustees, Alhaji
Sani Umar Jabbi, said that the media has a lot of vital role to play.
“We should be creating lives based on quality on ground not
for size or land mass but the kind of quality of life of the environment. When
you talk of family planning based on population you would send a negative
perception to the Muslim world in Nigeria especially far north.”
The Guardian Newspaper
