*Sen. (Dr.) Olorunnimbe Mamora, Minister of State for Health, says family planning is an important intervention for promoting proper timing and spacing of pregnancies as well as assisting to achieve pregnancies where challenges exist

Alexander Davis | 绿帽献妻

In a move to ensure sustainable family planning in the country, the Federal Government will soon introduce the Depot Medroxyprogesterone Acetate Subcutaneous Injection (DMPA-SC) which allows self-injection in hard-to-reach places in consumers.

Sen. (Dr.) Olorunnimbe Mamora, Honourable Minister of State for Health, who disclosed this in a virtual meeting on the National Family Planning Media Campaign Launch in Thursday, July 1, 2021, stated that it was an effort to ensure sustainable family planning, agency report said.

The Minister noted: 鈥淭his is the process of introducing scaling up of new family planning commodities to expand Nigeria鈥檚 Method Mix to allow for free choice.

Sen. (Dr.) Olorunnimbe Mamora, Honourable Minister of State for Health,

鈥淭he product which has been formulated to allow for self-injection is considered a game-changer in Nigeria鈥檚 family planning landscape.鈥�

Dr. Mamora noted: 鈥淚t is indeed very useful for ensuring continuation subsequent doses in hard-to-reach areas as clients will be given some vials to take home after some training on its use.鈥�

Family planning is an important intervention for promoting proper timing and spacing of pregnancies as well as assisting to achieve pregnancies where challenges existed.

He also stressed that it 鈥減romotes maternal and child survival with a potential for reducing maternal and child mortality and morbidity by 30 per cent.鈥�

A successful implementation is key to achieving the health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the country, said the Minister.

According to him, the Federal Ministry of Health has been collaborating with development partners to build synergy toward provision of quality family planning information services for the purposes of prevention of unintended pregnancies and聽聽 prevention of sexually transmitted infections.

鈥淚t is part of the government鈥檚 efforts to provide a roadmap for family planning implementation as well as proper coordination.

鈥淭he ministry revised the Nigeria Family Planning Blueprint (Scale Up Plan 2020-2024) which was developed in 2014 as a follow up to the 2012 London Summit on Family Planning.

鈥淭he roadmap will provide guidance for stakeholders for implementation of family planning in Nigeria.

鈥淭his important document spells out six thematic areas and their cost implications,鈥� Mamora said.

He disclosed that many states of the Federation have developed their State-specific Costed Implementation Plans and Annual Operational Plans to guide implementation of family Planning in their domains.

Other key interventions put in place by the ministry include the 鈥淭ask Shifting and Task Sharing Policy鈥�.

He said: 鈥淣igeria adopted the Task Shifting and Task Sharing Policy in 2014 to address the acute manpower challenges in the country.

鈥淯nder this policy, rational distribution of tasks is undertaken to allow less qualified health care workers to undertake tasks they are not earlier allowed to perform, thereby freeing the more qualified ones to attend to other more demanding tasks.鈥�

The 鈥淔ree Family Planning Commodities Policy鈥� as another intervention 鈥渢he government instituted the Free Family Planning Commodities Policy in 2014 to address lack of access to FP information and services because of cost.

鈥淭his Policy was adopted after a study showed that a significant percentage of Nigerians of reproductive age were unable to access FP information services.鈥�

He added that the 鈥淢inistry of Health is also in the process of finalising modalities for inclusion of Hormonal Intrauterine Device in Nigeria鈥檚 public health system.鈥�

The Ministry also adopted 鈥淒evelopment of the National Guidelines for State Funded Procurement of Contraceptive Commodities.

Prof.聽 Emmanuel Lufadeju, National Coordinator Rotary, Reproductive Maternal and Child Health (RMCH), said that the overall goal of the training was to inform all sexually active women and men that they could freely access family planning products and services.

Lufadeju stated: 鈥淚t is our hope that information spread by journalists through their country wide reports will contribute to the realisation of better smaller manageable families for the people of Nigeria.

鈥淭his will help Nigeria to harness a Demographic Transition from its growing population.

鈥淓ffective family planning can reduce maternal morbidity and mortality resulting from child birth and pregnancy complications substantially.鈥�

Mrs. Adaora Anyanwutaku, Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Information and Culture, said that the objective of the campaign would go聽 a long way to educate and enlighten all sexually active women and men to access family planning products and services in Nigeria.

Anyanwutaku said that the media campaign was aimed at the entire populace, using the multi-media channels like TV, posters, fliers, billboards, brochures, audio messaging, churches and mosques.

She said: 鈥淭here is an increasing level of maternal morbidity and mortality resulting from childbirth and pregnancy complications.

鈥淭his ugly situation calls for public information and enlightenment not only from the media but also from all relevant stakeholders and our international partners,鈥� she said.

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