Family planning: Health Minister Harps On Keeping Incoming Political Leaders On Track Over Funding, Other Challenges

By AKOR SYLVESTER-Abuja

As Nigerians are prepared to usher in new political leaders in the coming elections, the ministry of health has reechoed the need to draw the attention of the incoming political leaders on appropriate funding of family planning to reduce material mortality in the country.

 

The minister of health, Osagie Ehanire, in a key note address delivered by the Director and Head, Reproductive Health Division of the ministry, at the Summit organized by the Association of Nigeria Health Journalists. Entitled “Re-echoing Voices for Family Planning Funding and need to make Maternal Health Services Free by incoming Political Leaders”, in Abuja yesterday, expressed concern that the issue of maternal mortality and morbidity have not received the needed attention in the country, compared to other nations of the world.

 

He said despite the concerted efforts of the ministry in ensuring that the rate of childbirth deaths are brought down to the lowest ebb, the situation still persist.

 

The minister said the event represented a necessary step towards getting the about-to-be-elected political actors to be properly primed to keeping faith with the country’s commitment to sustained increase in use of contraceptives by Nigerians of reproductive age across the country.

 

“Nigerians with responsibility for the governance of this great nation need to be supported with appropriate information that will help them make critical decisions regarding implementation of identified interventions to scale up delivery and uptake of family planning services and commodities.

 

“This requires sustained financing and continuous effort at creating an enabling environment by our political leaders, among others.

 

“This Summit is a very laudable event and it’s coming at the right time, especially now that the country is undergoing transition to a new government by May this year”, he said.

 

The minister emphasised that family planning is globally recognized as an important strategy/intervention for the prevention of maternal morbidity and mortality, saying it has also been used by many nations to achieve remarkable socio-economic growth and development.

 

He noted that it was in the light of that Nigeria has incorporated family planning as a key component in the National Policy on Population for Sustainable Development as well as the National Development Plan, both currently being implemented by the Governments of the Federation.

 

The minister said such effort strengthens and continues to make relevant Federal Government’s pronouncement on 7″ April, 2011 through the Honourable Minister of Health making family planning information, services and commodities free at all level of the public health care delivery system.

 

“It is important that since that declaration, the demand for family planning information, services and commodities has been increasing exponentially leading to significant increase in funding requirements for procurement of needed commodities and other interventions which is increasingly becoming difficult to keep up with.

 

“Of course, this increase has resulted in stock out of the family planning commodities which in turn is negatively impacting the achievement of our key family planning targets.

 

“The Federal Ministry of Health, as part of the solutions has developed and is currently disseminating the National Guideline for State-funded Procurement of Family Planning Commodities which purpose is to promote domestic funding for procurement and distribution with substantial contributions from the thirty-six states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.

 

“The adoption and inclusive implementation by the national and sub-national level Governments, of Nigeria’s Family Planning Blueprint, FP2030 Commitment as well as other critical family planning documents equally form part of the solutions to the challenges facing the national family planning programme”_he noted.

 

Speaking further, the minister said the Federal Ministry of Health also realised that the potentials of the private sector are not being harnessed adequately, hence the development of the Private Sector Engagement Strategy on Sexual and Reproductive Health.

 

He stated that government was hoping that the key Private Sector players will embrace the strategy and contribute to the expected success.

 

Maintaining that Health Journalists in particular and the Media in general has important roles to play in supporting on-going effort of Government at positioning family planning as major strategy for accelerating the country’s socioeconomic development with adequate investments to reap appropriate measure of demographic dividend from the current youth bulge, the minister commended the Association of Nigeria Health Journalists for organizing the Summit.

 

He solicited for continued support to relevant Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) of Government with role to play in the country’s family planning programme implementation.

 

The minister also  encouraged the Association of Nigeria Health Journalists to continue with its effort at keeping their members and the general public well informed on issues around improving the health and overall well-being of Nigerians reproductive age especially women and girls.

 

Also urging the association and all other stakeholders to continue their collaboration with Ministry to enable the country improve its indices in healthcare delivery, the minister called for collaboration of the relevant stakeholders in achieving the feat.

 

In his presentation, Prof. Oladapo Ladipo, the President of ARFH, described as shameful the maternal deaths in the country, saying the country new what to do to better the situation, but failed to put money into it.

 

Maintaining that pregnancy is not a disease, but a process to be taking care of, the medical expert said it was important for every pregnant woman to be delivered by birth attendants.

 

According to him, ” quality baby is very important, and for a woman to deliver quality baby, she must attend and receive pregnancy care. There should be prenatal and postnatal care”,.

 

On his part, the Chairman of the Association for the Advancement of Family Planning (AAFP) and Focal Person of the Family Planning (FP) 2030 in Nigeria, Dr Ejike Orji,

in his presentation, titled “Dangers of not funding family planning services” x-rayed the implications of not giving attention to family planning services, saying government for some years did not put money on the table for family planning commodities, except the funding that came from foreign donors.

 

He called for effective funding for family planning to reduce material mortality and morbidly.

 

Earlier, in his opening speech, the president of ANHEJ, Hassan Zaggi said the one-day Summit supported by the Partnership for Advocacy In Child and Family Health at Scale (PACFaH@scale), anchored by the Development Research and Projects Centre (dRPC) was to draw the attention of the incoming political leaders to the issue of family planning funding in particular, and health care services in general