Family Planning:  Huge Needs Remain Despite Interventions –Federal Govt

Federal Ministry of Health has said that despite the interventions for Family Planning (FP), a huge unmet need still exist especially in local communities.

The ministry’s director, family health department, Dr. Boladele Alonge, stated this on Wednesday at the opening ceremony of the National Family Planning Technical Review meeting in Abuja.

She said, “Despite all the interventions by both government at the national and sub-national levels and partners support, there is still a huge unmet need for FP especially in our rural communities and hard-to-reach areas.”

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Represented by the director, health promotion, Dr Ladidi Bako- Aiyegbusi, Alonge blamed the non-accessibility of family planning information and services especially in low resource settings as well as a huge funding gap for the procurement of FP commodities for the poor demand for family planning services.

She, therefore, stressed the need for partners and stakeholders to dialogue and foster a way forward so we can collectively achieve our set targets and that every woman of couple have access to safe and quality FP services at all Service Delivery Points (SDPs) spread across the entire nation.

“As we move closer to the year 2030, we should focus on Sustainable Financing for Family Planning as well as the FP 2030 Commitment,” she said.

However, she said the federal government through the Federal Ministry of Health added new commodities to the method mix like the DMPA-SC, with the Self Injection component, Hormonal IUD, Levoplant so that more women of reproductive age can access a wide range of commodities of their choice.

Earlier, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) family planning and maternal health technical specialist, Adeela Khen, lament funding gaps, saying  “As we move forward, we face more and more funding gaps as the contribution becomes so important, particularly in this year 2023, where we are  looking at almost 80 per cent  gap and that’s where we are presently.