UNFPA, Microsoft Partner to Explore Tech In Family Planning

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has partnered the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and Microsoft Teams to explore technological innovation to access increase demand for family planning solutions in Nigeria.

This partnership is expected to improve health outcomes by enforcing digital outreaches for potential users and providing them with informed decisions about health and reproductive health.

This is even as Microsoft invested over $10 billion in open AI and Chatgpt to educate families on the need to spread information on family planning across verticals that would have global impact.

The event was held at the Microsoft Office King Towers, Ikoyi Lagos with the theme: “Family Planning Hackathon” saw 14 innovative ideas to access family planning in Nigeria.

Earlier in her remarks, Gender and Reproductive Health analyst, UNFPA, Esther Somefun, said that as an organisation, they were employing technology and innovations to ensure that Nigerians have something sustainable that reaches the targeted population or beneficiaries that they are designing it for.

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“We are looking for things we have designed from our own experiences and things we have seen worked. We have a kind of ideas and adaptation of what can work in our society,” she said.

Somefun said that the aim was to achieve three transformation results, which were: Ending unwanted pregnancy and ending all forms of violence in Africa with traditional practice.

She disclosed that in Nigeria, the group had been able to meet the reproductive intentions of 19 per cent of married women reportedly not wanting to have anymore children.

“Access to family planning, information and services is critical and vital as case studies have shown that 3.5 million pregnancies could be avoided.

“To reach our target, even when we have funding, UNFPA has identified a 6 by 6 framework which identifies technology and innovation as a catalyst and as accelerator to reducing maternal mortality and also within our means of family planning,” she said.

Also, Innovation Team Lead, African Development Centre (ADC), Microsoft Engineering Team, Nkem Nweke, said: “We want to build AI solutions that provides, helps or solve most problems in the world such as access to modern family planning and a product that is executed.”

Nweke averred that Microsoft has invested over $10 billion on open AI and Chatgpt while stating that this would lead the latest technology on Open (AI) Artificial Intelligence AI to solve most problems we have in the world today.

He stressed the need to synergize with NGOs on the need to join collaborative efforts with government, medical experts and players in the industry to enable them build something good and inclusive to reposition Africa economy, build windows for ideas and solutions across the global markets. He said.