Why commitment to family planning should be improved – Expert

There is need for the federal government and the National Assembly to increase financial commitment to family planning, the Coordinator, Africa Health Budget Network (AHBN), Dr Aminu Magashi, has said. He said doing so would ensure access to family planning services and commodities for Nigerian women. Family planning is key to reducing maternal and infant […]

There is need for the federal government and the National Assembly to increase financial commitment to family planning, the Coordinator, Africa Health Budget Network (AHBN), Dr Aminu Magashi, has said.

He said doing so would ensure access to family planning services and commodities for Nigerian women. Family planning is key to reducing maternal and infant mortality, according to medical experts.

Dr Magashi said only 22 per cent of Nigerian women use contraceptives currently, adding that, “If a woman is empowered to space her children, she will reduce the risk of infection and excessive bleeding during pregnancy. She also becomes healthy to cater for her own children.”

According to the Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) 2018, unmet needs for family planning are higher among sexually active unmarried women (48%) than among currently married women (19%)

For instance, modern contraceptive use among currently married women ranges from 2% in Yobe and Sokoto to 29% in Lagos.

Speaking during an interactive session with journalists in Abuja, Dr Magashi said the federal government in July 2017 committed to contributing $4 million annually from 2017 to 2020 to be combined with contributions for the public sector family planning programmes. The government also signed to work with state governments, donors and other stakeholders to ensure incremental domestic resources for the national family planning programmes.

He said however that till date government has not allocated the $4 million adding, “This is a concern because the $4m commitment was projected based on how many women will be reached with family planning commodities.”

While saying that Nigeria has made commitments under Family Planning 2020 to reach Modern Contraceptive Prevalence Rate of 27%, he said funds allocated were cut by about 80% from the 2018 to the 2019 budgets. In addition, he said the Family Planning Blueprint contains a vague commodity supply strategy even though the implementation of the policies was mostly conducted at the state level.

“Nigeria has not been able to meet the 27 per cent target in 2020 and the government did not fulfill its promise to release the $4 million. It only released part,” he said.