Experts: Family Planning Should Be Made High Priority

The Association of Nigeria Health Journalists (ANHEJ) and several health experts are urging the Federal Government to prioritise women’s sexual and reproductive health, especially access to family planning items.

They noted that while the rate of maternal deaths is unacceptable, many are preventable with access to family planning and commodities.

Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey of 2018 showed there are about 512 deaths for every 100,000 live births.

These were the views at a summit in Abuja, organised by ANHEJ, with support from Partnership for Advocacy in Child and Family Health at Scale (PACFaH@scale), anchored by Development Research and Projects Centre (dRPC).

Read Also: Family Planning Experts Bemoan High Maternal Mortality Rate

Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire; President of Association for Reproductive and Family Health (ARFH), Prof. Oladapo Ladipo; ANHEJ President, Hassan Zaggi, called governments to prioritise health, by funding family planning to save women from preventable deaths.

Ehanire, represented by Deputy Director of Family Planning Logistics, Ugochukwu Alex, said: “Family planning is globally recognised as strategy/intervention for preventing maternal morbidity and mortality.”

Chairman of the Association for Advancement of Family Planning (AAFP), Dr. Ejike Orji, said: “As of today, about 85 percent of our population is dependent, while 15 percent produces what the other 85 consume. Our fertility rate is 5.3; the average for the world is 2.5.

“Nigeria ranks 187 of 189 in health care. The two countries Nigeria beats are Central African Republic and Myanmar. Anyone serious about our transformation must attend to fertility control.”