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Dr. Mordi Ononye, Delta’s Health Commissioner.

By Donald Ojebo

Residents in Delta State have been called upon to embrace population control through the option of family planning by bringing forth only the number of children that they can effectively carter for considering the resources available to them.

The Delta State Commissioner for Health Dr. Mordi Ononye made the call during an interview in his office as part of activities to mark the 2020 World Contraception Day in Asaba.

He explained that government’s stance on family planning does not mean support for abortion but rather called on youths to imbibe abstinence from sex and where not feasible to embrace family planning options that are available to them.

Dr. Ononye counseled the youths to protect their future through self-discipline and rational thinking as it pertains to their sexual appetite adding that they have beautiful lives ahead of them which they should not throw away because of the pleasures of few minutes of today which they can avoid.

He disclosed that funds allocated for Family Planning activities in the Reviewed Delta State 2020 Budget is N20m and that efforts are on to actualize the commencement of the release of funds for family planning activities in the State.

Dr Ononye explained that the State has made tremendous progress in Family Planning (FP) over the years in that it has more than tripled the annual FP Uptake from 15,486 New Acceptors in 2015 to 53,583 in 2019.

“As at June 2020, the number of new women who have taken up FP methods was 32,135 which shows that the State is poised to surpass its 2019 achievement despite the challenges of the COVID 19 pandemic” he added.

The Hon Commissioner said the State is also scaling up the use of Depot Medroxyprogesterone Acetate Subcutaneous/Self Injection (DMPA SC/SI) method as a strategy to increase the access of our women and girls to FP through non-clinical channels such as Proprietary Patent Medicine Vendors (PPMVs) and Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs).

“As a ‘Self Injection’ method, it offers an additional advantage in situations where intending users cannot access a Service Delivery Point (SDPs) in this case during the COVID 19 lockdown” he explained further.

In the same vein, a coalition of Civil Society Organizations of the Partnership for Advocacy in Child and Family Health @ Scale (PAS) Project has called on the Nigerian Government to release the 2020 budgetary allocation for Family Planning (FP) activities and to apply the same results-based management approaches used in the Covid-19 fight to family planning programming in Nigeria.

The call was contained in a statement jointly signed by the Coalition of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) of the Partnership for Advocacy in Child and Family Health @ Scale (PAS Project) as part of activities to commemorate the 2020 World Contraception Day (WCD) on the 26th of September, 2020.

The Coalition which comprised of the Association for the Advancement Family Planning (AAFP-PAS); Interfaith Mediation Centre (IMC-PAS); Women In Media Communication Initiative (WIM-PAS); Society of Gynecology & Obstetrics of Nigeria (SOGON-PAS); and the Medical Women’s Association of Nigeria (MWAN-PAS) posited that World Contraception Day is a milestone and an opportunity for government at national and state levels to provide adequate funding for family planning stating that funding is needed for commodities, logistics, awareness creation and training of new providers under the Task Shifting Task Sharing (TSTS) policy.

While noting the activities of African Health Professional Associations, Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and National Governments as they commemorated the Day and specifically in Nigeria, the Coalition stated that the celebration came at a time when the Federal Government of Nigeria and many State Governments have signaled their commitment to increase modern family planning services delivery for women and men of reproductive age in the country.

The statement stated that the Federal Government has charged the 2020 National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) Senior Executive Course 42 to spend the next one year to study and analyze Nigeria’s Population Growth and Human Capital Development.

“As CSOs in the Partnership for Advocacy in Child and Family Health @ Scale (PAS) project we are committed to improving child and family health in Nigeria. We believe that access to modern contraceptives gives families a chance to practice healthy timing between births which reduces the risk to the mother; contribute to the survival of living children; and the health of the nation”, the statement added.

It disclosed that the Nigerian Government is committed to a 27 per cent modern contraceptive prevalence by 2020 of which to date the rate is only 16.6 per cent stating that the key reason for the inability to meet this national target was the inadequacy of FP financing as year after year funds allocated were not released, released late or not in alignment with Costed Implementation Plans (CIPs).