Experts want family planning budget releases tracked

The Medical Women’s Association of Nigeria has enjoined the Federal Government and the National Assembly to always monitor releases of budgets allocated for family planning. The president of the association, Dr Mininim Oseji, made the call during the Medical Women’s International Association conference in Abuja. ‘Chinese nationals destroying Nigeria’s bushes, forests, water areas’ FG warns […]

The Medical Women’s Association of Nigeria has enjoined the Federal Government and the National Assembly to always monitor releases of budgets allocated for family planning.

The president of the association, Dr Mininim Oseji, made the call during the Medical Women’s International Association conference in Abuja.

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She said: “We want them to track the releases. That is the commitment we want from them. If there is no release, let them find out why. They shouldn’t just stop at making announcements. When there is no commiserate release, they should find out what happened , and address the  bottle necks.”

According to her, male involvement is also important in family planning uptake by women.

She said: “A lot of women want to use family planning but are afraid of what their husbands will say. So, we need to bring them on board.”

She said adequate family planning funding was key to reducing maternal mortality and morbidity, she decried the slow pace of the implementation of the programmes at the national and state levels.

She called for insurance coverage for family planning and supportive supervision among others.

Dr Ejike Orji, Chairman, Association for Advancement of Family Planning, said Nigeria needed between $26 and $33m for family planning commodities annually, but had only been able to provide $4m.