Funding gaps threaten 2018 target for family planning

The Federal Ministry of Health is optimistic that Nigeria could reach the targeted 36 percent contraceptive use rate by 2018, despite inadequate funding for years. “With high political will, leadership and stewardship roles of government at all levels as well as sustained passion of all stakeholders on implementation of the National Family Planning Blueprint, we […]

The Federal Ministry of Health is optimistic that Nigeria could reach the targeted 36 percent contraceptive use rate by 2018, despite inadequate funding for years.
“With high political will, leadership and stewardship roles of government at all levels as well as sustained passion of all stakeholders on implementation of the National Family Planning Blueprint, we shall make our target of 36 percent CPR by 2018,” Dr Kayode Afolabi, head of reproductive health division in the family health department of the ministry said at a stakeholders for national dialogue on the blueprint meeting in Abuja.
The target means up to 7.3 million women will need to choose to use contraceptive methods by 2018 which will require up to $603 million in total funding, Afolabi explained.
But commodities for family planning require $15.5 million this year alone and already face a funding shortfall of $2.7 million, he noted.
A total of $71 million was pledged by donors, including UNFPA, the UK, Canada and the federal health ministry as well as money removed from fuel subsidy to fund family planning from 2011 to 2015, but only $52.9 million was ever disbursed – with $8.8 million from the federal government.
Nigeria made the commitment at a London meeting in 2012 – and has two years left on the target.
Permanent secretary of the health ministry, Dr. Amina Shamaki said given limited time available for Nigeria to achieve the target, “there must be a sense of urgency in addressing the common bottlenecks that hinder meaningful progress towards the set goals and this requires the collaboration of all stakeholders.”
According to an assessment by the Association for the Advancement of Family Planning (AAFP), which convened the dialogue, much of funding for Nigeria’s family planning programme and commodities are heavily donor dependent, lacked technical manpower and faced serious bureaucratic challenges that impede its process.
AAFP chairman Dr Ejike Oji said the association is concerned by low rate of family planning uptake and stagnation in contraceptive prevalence rate over the last 10 years, high unmet needs for family planning and resultant high maternal mortality ratio.
“We seek to identify various implementation challenges in the family planning arena in Nigeria and use national dialogue as a way to raise awareness and advocate with the policy and decision makers to address the identified challenges,” said Oji.