By: AbdulHafeez Oyewole
The three tiers of government have been urged to make family planning activities free to improve advocacy in grassroots areas and increase the low contraceptive prevalence rate among women.
At an advocacy roundtable organized by The Challenge Initiative (TCI) and Development Communications (DevCom) network in Ilorin, experts emphasized the importance of family planning in regulating population growth and alleviating poverty and health hazards.
Dr. John Godwin, Senior Registrar at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital spoke on the topic titled, “Unlocking Sustainable Development through Family Planning: Exploring the Connections between Population, Prosperity, and the Planet,”
Dr. Godwin, who said that family planning is tied to the population growth rate, added that family planning can help regulate the population growth rate.
“In a society where family planning is working, the population rate would be organised and slower. When it’s slower, the pressure on natural resources like agriculture, natural resources, ecosystems, and the nation’s resources that we depend on will be well regulated.
“There will be less insecurity, which is caused by scrambling for natural resources. Family planning is that balance between population growth rate and the nation’s resources,” he said.
He highlighted the benefits of family planning, including effective resource allocation, enhanced quality education, and economic prosperity.
“Where family planning is working, a woman is enabled to maximise her potential, be it in small-scale business or large-scale business,” adding that the absence of child spacing could attract poverty, insufficient resources, poor health, inadequate education, and poor socioeconomic lives.
He noted that an uncontrolled population has severe consequences, including insecurity and strained resources.
Mrs Bashirat Adebukola Jatto, the Family Planning Coordinator at the State Ministry of Health, revealed that the state government aims to improve the 17% contraceptive prevalence rate among women of reproductive age.
“We are set to improve the contraceptive prevalence rate, especially among women of reproductive age. Our major challenge is the misinformation and misconceptions about family planning, mostly by women in rural areas.
“This is what our health providers in our facilities and family planning mobilizers have embarked upon to sensitise the people on the benefits of contraceptives and child spacing, among other activities involved in family planning,” he said.
Mrs Jatto said that there is availability of commodities as well as health providers in government facilities across the 16 LGAs of the state.
She said that “when the commodities are available, accessibility will improve. There is no facility in the state where you won’t get family planning services. We want our women to access the service.”
She identified misinformation and misconceptions as major challenges, emphasizing the need for sensitization and education.
TCI State Programme Lead, Dr. Adewale Abiodun, represented by Mrs. Sharon Gabriel, encouraged parents to discuss family planning matters with their teenage children.
He also urged media personnel to engage stakeholders in addressing the low contraceptive prevalence rate.