As part of efforts to improve the lives of women and children in Lagos State, stakeholders in maternal and child health in the state, have called on the governor-elect, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, to invest massively in family planning services to enable more women and girls have access to modern contraceptive methods of their choice.
The importance of family planning based on available evidence, they say, cannot be over-emphasised, stressing that it strengthens the health of the woman on every side.
The stakeholders made the plea during a three- Day Capacity Building Workshop on Investigative Journalism organised by Pathfinder International for health journalists in the state recently, with the aim to bringing critical family planning issues to the front burner.
According to them, family planning saves the lives of mothers and can help reduce maternal mortality by 40 percent, affirming that family planning/child spacing methods, allow women to rest between pregnancies in order to regain their health.
In their separate presentations, the stakeholders urged Sanwo-Olu to address some specific problems confronting family planning services and its access by women and girls in the state.
They identified major barriers to access to family planning services in Lagos state to include; non-release of funds for consumables and logistics- transportation of family planning commodities to health facilities where they are needed, shortage of health workers, non functional primary healthcare centres, poor health workers’ attitude, lack of youth-friendly centres, among others.
Citing the above hindrances, they advised the in-coming administration on the need to proritise family planning in its health agenda to ensure that family planning contraceptives and other services were available free of charge in all its health facilities across the state.
In his presentation which dwelt on family planning funding in Lagos State, one of the stakeholders and a member of the Public Health Sustainable Advocacy Initiative , Pastor Chibuike Amaechi, appealed to Sanwo-Olu to address the family planning funding gaps in the state, by fulfilling his promise of increasing the health budget of the state from eight percent to 15 percent during his electioneering campaign in the just concluded general elections.
He said the incoming administration had in its manifesto promised to increase health allocation to 15% which he said would impact on the family planning services in the state if fulfilled.
Amaechi also wants the governor-elect to look into the delay and non release of family planning budgeted funds in the state.
He revealed that out of N236m earmarked for family planning in 2018 only N48m was released, lamenting that the state was experiencing a huge gap in terms of budget release, urging the governor-elect to fill in the gaps after his inauguration on May 29, 2019.
On his part, the Country Director of Pathfinder International Nigeria, Dr. Farouk Jega, urged the incoming administration to ensure a steady flow of funding into family planning services to improve access.
Jeja said it was important Lagos remained a centre of excellence in access to family planning.
Commenting on the importance of quality service to clients, the Country Director stressed the need to invest in training and retraining of health workers on family planning services, adding that it was critical in addressing some controversial issues affecting uptake of services such as side effects, confidentiality especially among the adolescents.
According to him, a knowledgeable service provider will make a difference in the uptake of family planning among adolescents in the country.
Speaking on adolescent and youth access to family planning, one of the stakeholders and Program Officer, Reproductive Health Family Planning, Pathfinder International, Izundu Kosi, affirmed that adolescents and youth face a wide range of barriers in accessing high-quality sexual and reproductive health services in Nigeria including Lagos state.
Kosi stated that sexual and reproductive health services for youth in Lagos state were facing serious funding gaps, emphasising that there were no budget allocation specifically for adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health services.
She appealed to Sanwo-Olu to create a specific budget line for adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health services, review key SRH policies, implement the laws and train healthcare providers on youth friendly health service delivery.
Another stakeholder, Abiodun Ajayi, wants the governor-elect to devote more money to family planning in order to address the unmet sexual and reproductive health needs of young persons in the state which is high.
Ajayi said, “if Sanwo-Olu heed this clarion call, it will go a long way in reducing teenage pregnancy, out of school girls, baby dumping, unsafe abortion, post abortion , infant mortality, among others.”
