Health policies shut out “female condom”

Analysis of policy documents related to reproductive health has concluded female condoms are “not receiving adequate attention in terms of policy content and specific strategies” to guide health workers. The analysis of some 17 policy documents going as far as 2004 by the Association for Reproductive and Family Health found information in the media about […]

Analysis of policy documents related to reproductive health has concluded female condoms are “not receiving adequate attention in terms of policy content and specific strategies” to guide health workers.

The analysis of some 17 policy documents going as far as 2004 by the Association for Reproductive and Family Health found information in the media about female condoms and budgetary provision for their supply was “grossly inadequate”, according to Dr Abiodun Hassan, team lead for the analysis.

Only four of the 17 policy documents analysed during desk review mentioned female condoms, even though the United Nations Commission of Life-Saving Commission, co-chaired by former President Goodluck Jonathan, has listed female condoms among 13 essential commodities it said could help improve health outcomes for women and children.

“Most documents dating as far back as 2004, 2006 were already obsolete and there was no revision of these documents. These are the same policies stakeholders are still making references to and using for their operation. They are not in tune with the current global policy direction,” said Hassan at the dissemination of the findings in Abuja.

Even more recent documents like the Tax Safety Policy, HIV policy on adolescents and youths and the blueprint on lifesaving family planning commodities are “also not projecting female condom as an alternative in the method mix that women can choose from,” said Hassan.

Few women’s groups and organisations interviewed for the analysis were aware of female condoms or any specific policies about them.

The analysis has recommended refocusing policymakers’ attention to promote female condom and educate the public on its triple-action benefits of prevention of unwanted pregnancy, protection from sexually transmitted infections and prevention of tubal-factor infertility, according to Prof Oladapo Ladipo, president of ARFH.

Health minister Isaac Adewole, speaking through a representative, pledged full commitment to “implementing the outcome of … the analysis to influence policies and programmes for family planning.”

The analysis is only a “landscape” look at the position of female condom in health programmes in Nigeria, said Saskia Husken, of Rutgers, a Netherlands-based reproductive rights group which has pushed global advocacy to bring the female condom into health programmes.

“It is a matter of bringing knowledge from global level and market—because there is development in female condom markets—as well as looking at what is happening in [the] country and bringing it to the global level,” explained Husken.

 

Only around two female condom brands are available in Nigeria, compared with more than 200 brands of male condom, some estimates say.