Nigeria has made another, yet to be kept, financial promise to family planning. It is the same case with other promises like allocating 15% of national budget to develop the health system. If health is wealth and our health system is weak, how then can we be wealthy as a nation? Find out why the government must fulfil commitments made.
It was sensational and fulfilling when Nigeria got the international applause on the 11th July 2012 at a London Summit on Family Planning tagged FP2020, which was facilitated by UK Government, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, UNFPA and many international donors and partners.The summit was aimed at mobilizing global policy, financing, commodity, and service delivery commitments to support the rights of an additional 120 million women and girls in the world’s poorest countries to use contraceptive information, services and supplies, without coercion or discrimination, by 2020.Nigerian government had spoken so eloquently at the summit, and reiterated that “in addition to our current annual commitment of US$3 million for the procurement of reproductive health commodities, we are now committing to provide an additional US$8,350,000 annually over the next four years, making a total of US$33,400,000 over the next four years. This is an increase of 300 percent. “In our quest to save one million lives in Nigeria by 2015, we consider all lives have equal value. The Federal Government of Nigeria remains fully committed to meeting unmet needs for reproductive health services and commodities, including family planning. This will be done in an integrated, collaborative manner.”By doing that Nigeria highlighted that “Within the context of our desire to enhance maternal and child survival, as well as accelerate our demographic transition, we are committed to achieving the goal of a contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) of 36 percent by 2018. Achieving this goal will mean averting at least 31,000 maternal deaths. Over 700,000 mothers will be prevented from injuries or long-term complications due to childbirth.”I was an observer on the 12th November, 2013 at the African Government High Level Ministerial Meeting that took place at the African Union Conference Center, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on the theme: “The Youth Dividend: Return on Investment in Family Planning.” It was a meeting of Ministers of Health in Africa to review progress and performance and renew commitments.It was observed at the meeting and other similar meetings at the International Conference on Family Planning that countries that have the greatest needs for family planning are at the forefront of global progress to expand access to contraceptive information, services and supplies. This is according to a new progress report released by Family Planning 2020 (FP2020) at the 2013 International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP). Also at the conference, five governments – Benin, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea, Mauritania and Myanmar announced major new national family planning pledges as follows:
- In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the government will use domestic resources for the first time to purchase contraceptives;
- In Guinea, funds will be used to recruit thousands of health workers who can deliver family planning in rural areas, as has proven successful in other countries like Ethiopia;
- Myanmar will implement a monitoring system to strengthen quality of care and ensure women have a full range of contraceptive options;
- Beginning in 2014, the government of Mauritania will commit to allocating health commodity security funds for family planning and, along with its partners, commit to mobilizing additional resources for the implementation of its national family planning action plan;
- By 2015, Benin will ensure that modern methods of contraceptives are available without cost and that reproductive health training is provided for adolescents and youth.