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Tag: United Nations Population Fund

  • Ministry of health, UNFPA host forum on family planning in Lagos

    Ministry of health, UNFPA host forum on family planning in Lagos

    The Federal Ministry of Health, in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), has organised a High-Level Private Sector Engagement Forum on Family Planning (HLPF-FP) in Lagos state.

    This pivotal event convened influential decision-makers from the government, development partners, and corporations to encourage collaboration and chart a strategic path towards building a sustainable society.

    Representing the First Lady of Lagos state, Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu, the Permanent Secretary, Health District VI, Dr. Cecilia Mabogunje, underscored the significance of family planning as an informed decision made by individuals or couples regarding the number and spacing of children.

    She emphasised its far-reaching impact on socio-economic development, educational and career aspirations of women, and the overall well-being of families. Dr. Mabogunje called for concerted efforts from relevant stakeholders to adequately fund family planning services and address associated challenges.

    The UNFPA Resident Representative, Dr. Gifty Addico, represented by Koessan Kuawu, Deputy Representative, UNFPA Nigeria, highlighted the urgency of addressing maternal mortality in Nigeria, noting its second-highest rate globally.

    According to Addico, family planning could avert 23% of maternal deaths annually. However, challenges persist, with a funding gap of $32 million in 2023, resulting in 19% of Women of Reproductive Age lacking access to family planning, as per the 2018 National Demographic Health Survey.

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    The forum aimed to mobilise private sector support to bridge these gaps.

    In a special address, Daju Kachollom the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, explained Nigeria’s socio-economic challenges and its high maternal mortality rate.

    He emphasised the Federal Ministry of Health’s commitment to improving governance, population health outcomes, the healthcare value chain, and health security.

    Kachollom discussed the significant investments made and challenges faced in increasing demand for family planning services and commodities, noting the rising procurement costs.

    The High-Level Private Sector Forum aimed to secure private sector commitment to family planning, present the family planning investment case for feedback, and discuss plans towards actualizing FP2030.

    The event brought together diverse stakeholders, including government representatives, private sector entities, and civil society organizations.

    Kachollom urged continued collaboration to create an enabling environment for innovative financing, technology-driven family planning programs, and local production of family planning commodities.

  • ‘Religious leaders have roles in implementation of policies’

    …says We must build economy that ‘ll support growing population

    The Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo has said that the religious leaders have a role to play in the implementation of development policies and programmes.

    Osinbajo stressed the need for the country to take full benefit of its population which is estimated to be around 192 million.

    The Vice President who spoke on Thursday in Abuja at a programme on Harnessing Demographic Dividends for Sustainable Development in Nigeria, “The Role of Muslim Religious Leaders”.

    The two-day programme was put together by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in collaboration with National Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs. About 200 Islamic religious leaders from across the country is expected to converge at the forum.

    The overall objective of the forum is to enhance the capacity of religious leaders to advocate for policies and programmes towards harnessing DD in Nigeria.

    In his key note address, Osinbajo explained that demographic dividends could be harnessed if appropriate and timely actions are put in place.

    To avoid the time bomb scenario as a result of population explosion, Osinbajo called for urgent steps by all stakeholders.

    He said: “To avoid the time-bomb scenario, we must act with urgency to build an economy that can support that population, provide jobs and economic opportunity, education and healthcare, hope and optimism.

    “The successful implementation of the Road Map requires all-inclusive and robust stakeholders’ engagements/participation such that this Consultative Forum offers and we have seen already that there are several ideas that we need internalize, several policy measures that we need to understand in order to better inform the various publics that we influence.

    “Relevant demographics show the prospects and potentials of a prosperous future for Nigeria, if appropriate and timely actions are in place. Nigeria’s population size is currently estimated at over 198 million, the largest in Africa.

    “About 63 percent of the population is under the age of 25 years, 33 percent between 10 and 24, and 54.8 percent of working age (15-64). 51 percent of the female population are in their reproductive ages (ages 15-49).

    Read Also: Cleric calls for religious tolerance, unity

    And it is estimated that by 2050 Nigeria will be the 3rd most populous country in the world, after India and China.

    Of course, the reverse side of Nigeria’s rich demographic potential, is the much-talked-about ‘population time bomb,’ or as some would say demographic threats.

    “Total Fertility Rate (TFR) has remained high over the last three decades and currently stand at 5.5 births per woman; modern Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPRm) is very low at 10 percent with 16 percent unmet need for Family Planning (FP). Twenty-three percent of our adolescents (ages 15-19 years) have commenced childbearing and Child Marriage still persists at 18 percent.

    “These figures vary across the North and the South, for example, Total Fertility Rate is lowest in the South West (4.5) and highest in the North East (6.3) and North West (6.7), respectively with Bauchi at 8.1 and Sokoto at 7.0.

    &In effect the gaining an economic advantage from our population size and make up involves a national consensus around some ideas. The first is that the resources of families and of countries are finite. They are not limitless. So it is the business of heads of families at the micro level and governments at the macro level to prioritize the education and health of their families, but in so doing recognize that we can invest more per child with more deliberate planning. ”

    He also added, “The truth of the matter is that the work of ensuring that a large population a significant proportion of which is poor, the working of getting that population out of poverty is a daily and a deliberate work. It is one that involves planning, commitment and managing the resources ins such a way that everyone benefits from it, it is one that requires fiscal discipline.”

    He also outlined what the government has being doing to removing the majority from poverty,which include the N-power programme amongst others.

    On the role of religious leaders, he said “You play very vital roles in the social, cultural and economic lives of the people. You shape attitudes, opinions and behaviors of large numbers of our people, and there is no real progress or transformation that can happen in any society and our society without your participation, involvement or endorsement.

    “More than ever before you are needed as voices of change, in everything from improving maternal, newborn and child health in Nigeria, to encouraging investment in education, particularly of women and girls, educating citizens on the importance of family planning for births spacing, and advocating against early/child marriage.

    “Very importantly, you also have a responsibility to hold governments to account, especially holding government to account in managing the resources faithfully and not stealing the resources of the country, and ensuring that the resources go round and met the needs of the people, at all levels – local, State and Federal.

    On his part, the minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole said “Our approach to engage Muslim religious leaders, faith-based and community leaders to promote and facilitate the dialogue on Roadmap to harnessing Nigeria’s demographic dividend, SRH and gender equality, responsible fertility and the empowerment of young people at all levels is consistent with the broader strategy to ensure Nigeria harnesses the dividend of a demographic transition.

    “Available data indicates that working with religious leaders to improve maternal, new born and child healthis an important cost effective and sustainable strategy in disseminating MNCH information across a large population and is critical to persuading communities to change established behaviour and attitudes. Other evidences abound of tested interventions on the role of Religious Leaders in Nigeria that has led to improved perception on family planning and improved spousal communication.

    “To this end, the Nigerian government through the Federal Ministry of Health and in collaboration with UNFPA and numerous other partners is calling on all Religious Leaders to help in making the changes that would translate into positive contributions to Nigeria’s economic development through investment in Youths and Young people that will fast track our harnessing the Demographic Dividend.”

    He therefore assured the religious leaders of the support of the Ministry’ of Health.

  • Circumcision or mutilation?

    AS female circumcision the same as female genital mutilation (FGM)? That conceptual mix-up is all too apparent in the latest campaign against FGM, courtesy of a National Demographic Health Survey (NDHS) 2013, just released by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). According to Dr. Yakubu Aliu, UNFPA’s head in Cross River State, one out of every four Nigerian women, between the ages of 15 and 49, has undergone FGM.

    But the surprise in the stats, from the NDHS document, is both the spread and prevalence of the practice. Whereas conventional reportage in the media seemed to suggest FGM was mainly a northern crisis, this latest survey shows it is indeed more prevalent in the South — if not the crisis, then the practice.

    Here is the FGM geo-political prevalence spread, according to the NDHS document: South West, 56 per cent; South East, 40.8 per cent; South-South, 34.7 per cent; North Central, 9.6 per cent; North East, 1.3 per cent; and North West, 0.4 per cent. Yet, there is little, if any, record; of any corresponding FGM epidemics, in hospitals and other health centres, public or private, in these southern states, where FGM is allegedly prevalent!

    That is the first major alarm that what UNFPA categorised as FGM is no more than widespread female genital circumcision, which though many health sources have said is injurious to the girl-child is, as a cultural practice, still well entrenched, in the prevalent areas.

    Indeed, from the spread, it would be clear female circumcision is still a core culture in the Yoruba and Igbo heartlands. Yet, these areas are educated as any in the comparatively more educationally advanced Nigerian southern belt. In comparison, the practice fades into insignificance in the generally educationally challenged northern belt which nevertheless, at least from media and medical reports, has a higher FGM epidemic record, than the southern belt.

    The simple interpretation of all this is a classic clash between culture and modernity. But whatever the grievous implication of female circumcision for the girl-child, it cannot be curbed by demonising or criminalising an entrenched people’s culture.

    Still, please note: the clash between “culture and modernity” here would appear no more than a not-so-subtle advocacy, to impose the disapproving Western-European view of female circumcision. Even if that were the way to go, it cannot be pushed through, without first understanding and then adjusting the cultural base, from which the practice issues. That seeming willful denial would appear the major problem with the FGM campaign; and that is why UNFPA needs to tweak its campaign message, starting with the most basic concepts, to be sensitive to the recipient culture.

    To start with, female circumcision doesn’t equal female genital mutilation. It is only when circumcision goes awry that it ends in mutilation. If the act is rooted in culture, even among a segment that counts as one of the more modern in the country, the first logical thing would be to put in place, at any given time, a core of experts, who can safely conduct the genital surgery. That at least assures that every girl-child, going through that surgery, is in safe hands.

    While doing that, however, UNFPA, with the Nigerian health authorities, could mount a culture-sensitive campaign that points to the health hazards of female circumcision.

    In the coastal Yoruba states of Lagos and Ogun, male circumcision is routine, as in the rest of Yorubaland. But female circumcision is almost forgotten. Nevertheless, the story, in the more conservative Yoruba hinterland, of Osun, Ekiti and Oyo, specifically mentioned in the study, is markedly different. In there, female circumcision remains a sacred ritual, without which the girl-child is not culturally complete. That would also appear the position in the South East, from the prevalence rate in the NDHS 2013 document.

    Such an entrenched culture can only be unhorsed by free and voluntary renunciation, as has happened in much of the Yoruba coastal states. This is more so, when to believers, female circumcision ensures the girl-child would grow into a chaste woman — the first barrier against sexual promiscuity, which could prevent sexually transmitted infections. That is culture shaping science. Sexual discipline would also ensure matrimonial integrity, which should guarantee stable homes and a peaceful society.  That is culture projecting social harmony.

    Therefore, only comprehensive moral suasion, fired by systematic and sustained public health education and enlightenment, can deliver such a huge cultural change, with all its built-in but not-so-apparent benefits. But you cannot do that by first rubbishing the cultural belief, no matter how crude, of the target population. That would only earn defensiveness and avoidable stone-walling.

    Which is why everyone involved in this campaign must change tack. From what we have learnt, the girl-child can do without circumcision. And if prevention is better than cure, as indeed it is, without female circumcision, the chances of FGM is probably zero. Such simple, logical and culturally non-offensive messages could go a long way to changing set cultural attitudes for eons. But then, there can’t be a quick fix.

    Meanwhile, the government should offer institutional support to parents, who would rather not circumcise their girls but are being muscled to do so, via crude threats, ancestral curses and other rogue methods. The Guardian newspaper mentioned such cases in one of its FGM reports.

    A change of strategy is a better route than the present demonisation, stigmatisation, and scare-language, in a wholesale condemnation of female circumcision, when the real culprit is FGM.

     

  • High sexual activities hit refugee camps

    The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has discovered high level of survival sex in Cameroonian refugees’ camps in Cross Rivers state.

    UNFPA said the women involved in the communities were not protected with condoms.

    It has, therefore, set up non-traditional condom outlets in the refugees’ settlements.

    The intervention is to increase access to condoms in communities hosting refugees, who fled from crisis hit Anglophone Southern Cameroon.

    UNFPA said that after carrying out a joint needs assessment, it was discovered that there was high level of transactional sex without access to condoms in the communities.

    “We have done this before but we are improving on it; it is like a stop gap response,” it said on day in a statement.

    “We discovered there was high level survival sex in these communities and the women are not protected.”

    The condom outlets target Ikom, Obanliku, Boki, Akamkpa and Etung Local Government Areas of the Cross River.

    Read Also: Refugees in Akwa Ibom seek help

    The Project Coordinator for UNFPA, Dr Idowu Araoyinbo, said that the global body did a mapping to identify the health care providers close to the benefiting communities.

    Araoyinbo said that volunteers, including refugees, were engaged as focal persons to distribute and enlighten people in their wards on the benefits and proper usage of condoms.

    “We organised town hall meetings which served as information dissemination points to the communities on the availability of condoms in strategic locations and how they could utilize them effectively,’’ he said.

    Araoyinbo said the body also carried out capacity building which served as a platform to link the volunteers to the patent medicine vendors, the hot spots and the health care facilities where the condoms would be picked up.

    He said a similar project had been carried out in the past which was not sustainable.

    He said the volunteers picked up the condoms from the health care centres, took them to the communities where they were given to the patent medicine vendors that already had dispensers available.

    The dispensers, he said, were for control and were placed conspicuously in patent medicine stores so that the condoms were made available free of charge to communities.

  • Imo: Home of genital mutilation

    Imo: Home of genital mutilation

    Victims relive their ordeal as the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) partners women’s rights group to stamp out Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Imo State.

    Despite recent discoveries on the dangers of Female Genital Mutilation and spirited efforts by concerned groups and stakeholders to abolish the obnoxious, age-long practice, it is still prevalent in Imo State, especially in its rural parts. Today, the state has the unenviable record of 68% prevalence, which is the highest in the country. Investigations have revealed that the case is rampant in Mbaitoli, Ikeduru, Oguta, Ngor Okpala and Ohaji/Egbema Council Areas of the state, where untrained practitioners, mostly women, wreak havoc with their blunt knives.

    Most of the victims still live with the scar of the mutilation, even though they are already aged. Over 30 girls between the ages of one to 25 have died in the course of this practice in the last two years, with a greater number suffering one form of deformity or the other as a result of infections resulting from the unsterilised knives used for the circumcision by the.

    Also a sizeable number of mothers, who went through the ritual, still tell their tale of horror. Ugonne Lazarus, a 50-year-old retiree, described her experience as harrowing, “I was circumcised at the age of nine and I lack words to describe what I went through. For many years I could not forgive my mother for allowing me go through that experience”.

    Speaking further, she said, “The practice is condemnable and anyone still engaging in it is still leaving in the Dark Age. We are appealing to government agencies to step up awareness campaign against Female Genital Mutilation”.

    Nzubechi Uneze, was not as lucky as she was left paralysed in one leg after she was circumcised at the age of nine. The 60-year-old said her ordeal started one evening when  she was lured to the home of a local female circumcision specialist.

    “My mother took me there that fateful evening and about six powerful women we met there pounced on me and pinned me to the ground and while I was struggling, a sharp pain engulfed my entire body and I became unconscious,” she said.

    “I woke up three hours later and I could not move my legs and I felt paralyzed from my waist down. That was how I gradually lost the use of one of my legs. Then I vowed that I will fight the barbaric tradition but as I grew up, I discovered that there is little I can do as an individual. The culture and tradition promote this practice and there is little or nothing we can do about it, except the government intervenes”.

    Hope is rising for the victims of the practice and others who are fighting the obnoxious practice and other  customs and traditions that undermine the rights of the women. A non-governmental organisation, the Women of Divine Destiny Initiative (WODDI) is partnering the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to curb the menace through awareness campaign and advocacy.

    Wife of the Imo State Governor, Nneoma Okorocha and founder of the NGO said that through advocacy and collaborations, the state House of Assembly has passed a bill criminalising the practice.

    “Female Genital Mutilation,” she said, “is a form of violence against women which is perpetuated by unfounded myth and baseless traditions. It is a practice that is very rampant in our region and unfortunately Imo State was found to have one of the highest prevalence rates of 68 percent.

    “In Imo State, intervention by UNFPA through the Ministry of Health, Women Affairs and Social Development has focused on five Local Government Areas of Mbaitoli, Ikeduru, Ohaji /Egbema, Ngor-Okpala and Oguta.

    “In spite of this intervention, it is noted that this practice is undertaken in our communities throughout the state and has been continuing unabated, parents especially mothers have been secretly indulging in the act, leaving the victims in perpetual agony and regrets.

    “This can no longer be allowed to go on.  It has therefore become imperative to end this harmful traditional practice”.

    She added further that the plan to eradicate FGM/C will be achieved through intensive grassroots awareness campaign in all the Local Government Areas in the state, with special emphasis on the areas with the highest prevalence rate.

    Also speaking recently during a one day workshop with some women from the twenty seven Council Areas of the state, wife the governor’s wife disclosed that a massive campaign to reach out to all women in the state to sensitise them on the dangers of Female Genital Mutilation has already commenced.

    She also informed that a law prohibiting FGM/C will soon be passed by the state House of Assembly.

    According to Mrs. Okorocha, offenders after the passage of the bill into law shall risk 14 years imprisonment or a fine of N250, 000 or both.

    One of the resource persons at the workshop, Ugochukwu Anozie, while emphasizing on the need to end the practice noted that FGM/C has been responsible for most Cesarean operations on pregnant women.

    He explained that the cutting of the Clitoris which is also known as clitoridectomy in a woman’s organ also erases sexual sensation and satisfaction in a woman.

    He said, “The clitoris has more blood vessels than any other part of the body, it has eight thousand, and when it is pressed or cut, messages that were supposed to be sent to the brain during pregnancy would have been cut and this sometimes explains why women go for Caesarean operation”.

    She also applauded the Imo State House of Assembly for passing the Female Genital Mutilation Law.

    She hinted that the law, which stipulated 14 years imprisonment and a fine of N250, 000, 00 or both, said that the Lawmakers have once again demonstrated the love they have for the women.

    According to the Governor’s wife who paid a commendation visit to the House of Assembly, the domestication of the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act (VAPP) which was enacted in 2015 by the National Assembly, is a testament that the state lawmakers had taken seriously the campaign by WODDI to end female genital mutilation and other obsolete practices that endanger the lives of women.

    She said, “In Imo State, the great Legislative House has not only domesticated this Act but prescribed more stringent penalties against the perpetrators which include; the arrest of the perpetrator by any law enforcement officer without a warrant of arrest, 14 years imprisonment, fine of N250,000 or both. The Legislative act by this honourable House has once again demonstrated the respect and love you have for your women.

    “It is also on this appreciative note that WODDI commend this House for othger Legislative provisions that bother on the Child Rights Act, widowhood practices and other related matters that provide protection for our women”.

    She however appealed to the lawmakers to enact a law that will abolish street hawking by children of school age, noting that the State under its free education programme, has made education mandatory.

    Earlier in his speech, while admitting the governor’s wife into the hallowed chambers, the Speaker, Rt. Hon Acho Ihim, commended her for her consistent campaign against practices and extant customs that impinges on the rights of the women.

    He assured her of the continued support of the House in her quest to abolish practices that endanger the lives of women or intimidate them in any form, adding that her campaign, led to the quick passage of the Female Genital Mutilation Law on March 6, 2017.

  • 24th TFL: Students use arts to seek end to FGM

    24th TFL: Students use arts to seek end to FGM

    Students from Public Secondary schools across Lagos state on Saturday raised discourse on the prevalence of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) at the 24th Edition of Teenage Festival of Life.

    The annual festival by Action Health Incorporated (AHI), a non-governmental organization dedicated to promoting youth’s health and development toward their successful transition to adulthood was tagged: “FGM Free Generation”.

    While delivering her opening remark, Mrs Adenike Esiet, the Executive Director of AHI, noted that the festival was to boost the awareness and knowledge of youths to get them engaged in the discourse towards impacting their various communities.

    Worthy of mention is that despite FGM, a procedure that involves partial or total removal of the external female genital organs for cultural or other non-medical reasons, being recognized as a human right violation, only eight states in Nigeria have domesticated laws prohibiting such practice.

    These states include Ekiti, Osun, Bayelsa, Edo, Cross River, Lagos, Rivers and Ondo.

    In her speech, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Country Director, Dr Diene Keita, called for a nationwide effective enforcement of the laws prohibiting FGM toward enhancing societal development.

    Represented by Dr Omolaso Omosehin, Director, UNFPA Lagos Office, Keita urged the Federal Government to ensure that the formulation and enforcement of laws aimed at ending FGM are extended to other states toward encouraging cultural changes.

    She recalled that in May 2015, former President Goodluck Jonathan banned FGM through the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act (VAPP), 2015.

    “Millions of girls are still at risk because the law is not being enforced appropriately. This age-long tradition is harmful to female reproduction system, harmful to health and has no medical basis,” Keita observed.

    Speaking about the Teenage Festival, Miss Funso Bukoye, the Project Coordinator, lamented that the severe short-term and long-term physical and psychological effects of mutilation was practised with the belief that it was beneficial to the girl-child.

    According to her: “Some communities believe it ensures and preserves virginity, marital faithfulness and prevents promiscuity.”

    Bukoye further added that TFL has provided thousands of youths in Lagos with the platform of becoming change agents that would champion the government’s agenda of achieving an FGM free country.

    In its 24th edition, TFL, a forum that enables young people and relevant stakeholders to identify the plights facing youths through artistic presentations, saw students compete with songs, dramas and poetry.

  • Gates foundation urges stakeholders to address population growth

    Gates foundation urges stakeholders to address population growth

    • Says it is essential to address economic, social challenges

    Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) has called for the need to look into the issues of rapid population growth in Nigeria.

    While not calling for a legislation for birth control, Dr Mairo Mandara, Country Director of the Foundation said the country might need to declare an emergency on the population with a view to improving the quality of health of the people.

    Nigeria is currently the seventh (7th) largest population in the world, with the predictions to become the third largest population by 2050 if the rate of growth is not checked. 

    With two and a half percent share of world population, Mandara noted that Nigeria is responsible for ten percent of global maternal death at 576/100,000 live birth according to 2013 National Demographic Health Survey.

    To this, she said the knowledge of family planning is essential; stressing, however, said that the issue of the number of children a family should have still remains a personal decision. 

    The Country Director who gave a keynote address to mark the one week 2017 World Population Day with the theme “Family planning, birth spacing: empowering people, developing nations” said: ” for Nigeria, child spacing and family planning are essential for improving the lives of women and children and preventing maternal mortality.

    “Family Planning is essential in addressing the focal and economic challenges, social problems and health issues, so much so that it may necessitate declaring emergency if possible to address the emerging multi-challenges of high maternal mortality ratio, high child mortality rate, civil unrest, poor amenities in schools and social services for rapidly increasing population.” 

    She further added: ” Nigeria houses the 7th largest population in the world and predictions potation her to become the 3rd in 33 years from now if the current annual growth rate of 3.2 percent prevails. 

    “The population age structure is pyramidal with a very large cohort of children at the base. Women constitute almost half of the total population of which those in their reproductive years represent 50 percent of the entire female population. 11 percent of the females are adolescents age 15-19 years and 23 percent of these girls have already commenced motherhood.”

    While also acknowledging that the knowledge of family planning in the country is very high, she, however, said the practice of modern family planning still remains very low. 

    Mandara stressed that using modern family planning method helps ” to time and space pregnancies in an effective way to improve pregnancy outcomes and allows couples to realise their desired number of children.

    “Family planning is a life-saving intervention and one the core pillars of safe because among others it saves women’s lives.”

    She further stressed that any amount spent on family planning will yield economic and other gains that can propel development forward and are thus critical to the success of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

    “Thus, investing in family planning is investing in the health and rights of women and couples worldwide. These investments also yield economic and other gains that can propel development forward and thus critical to the success of the 2030 agenda for sustainable development.

    Also, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Country Director, Dr Diene Keita said some 20 million women in the country lack access to safe and effective family planning methods.

    Keita who was represented by Mr Osaretin Adorni stressed that “fulfilling their unmet demands would save lives by averting 750,000 unintended pregnancies and reducing by one-third the estimated 40,000 annual maternal deaths.”

    The country director hereby pledged that UNFPA “has set an ambitious transformative goal to eliminate all unmet demand for family planning by 2039.”

  • FG cancels plan to build 10,000 PHCs

    FG cancels plan to build 10,000 PHCs

    …To merge health department for effective performance

    Federal Government may have put off its earlier plan to build 10,000 primary health care centres across all senatorial zones across the country, it was learnt Thursday.

    Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole said the decision to cancel the project was on the advice of Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, who felt that the states may not be able to meet up with their contributions.

    Adewole spoke during an audience with Under-Secretary-General and Executive-Director, United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA, Prof. Babatunde Osotimehin in Abuja

    Absolving the Finance minister of any blame, Adewole said the minister (Finance) had earlier pledged upon assumption of office that the PHCs would be made available by President Buhari-led administration within four years, and that the nation’s health systems would be driven through it.

    But with the turn of event in the country, she was concerned that the states may not be able to meet up with their contributions. This, Adeosun said will be a burden on the Federal Government.

    Minister of Health had on Tuesday assured the country that government would harmonize various departments in the ministry for effective performance. He said most of the health projects in the country are funded by sponsors, and that the best way to show seriousness as a government, and appreciate such aids is to expend the funds through a well-coordinated channel.

    He said of the PHC’s: “Truly, we came up with the agenda of revitalizing one PHC per political ward, that would lead us to ensuring 1000 PHCs are in place. But, then, there is a problem. Government set up an inter-ministerial committee. At our first meeting, it was obvious, the Minister of Finance said ‘wait a minute, when you take this up, the local government and states will abandon its responsibility. And, when they abandon it for you, you are in trouble.

    “About 40 percent of the resources go into personnel cost. So, if you want to bear the responsibility of the resources, you want to bear responsibility for commodities, then, what exactly will the states be doing?

    “So, we are trying to repackage the concept. We are taking on one hundred and ten for pilot. We are going through the backdoor, using the Save-One-Million-Lives, which is actually $500 million facility from the World Bank. We’ve given out to the states as grant, and what we’ve done is to advance them and advance payment at $1.5million. Use this, and then, in a year’s time, we would re-evaluate and match you with you. In other words, we compared, say Lagos State in 2015 with Lagos State in 2016. We then advance them with rewards based on improvements. And, I’ve been talking to many of the state governors, saying use this to strengthen your primary health care system. I think many of them are listening. If they do not invest, there will be nothing for them next year.”

    He added that one of the core goals of the ministry under his leadership is promote family planning services as the best way for mothers to plan and live their lives meaningfully.

    In his remark, Prof. Osotimehin, who was accompanied by Permanent Secretary, United Kingdom’s Department for International Development, DfID, Mark Lowcock, expressed the concern of UNFPA and DfID over high maternal death rate in the country.

    He however reiterated the support of international community for the country to reduce the incidence. He however informed that family planning would effectively reduce the deaths by 30 percent, and that it should be embraced by all people in the country.

  • Safety of mother, child in emergency

    Safety of mother, child in emergency

    “I remember hearing gunshots and feeling afraid. I ran to save my life and that of my six children, but I was not fast enough… I lost my baby… but I had to remain strong for the others…”, recounts Zainab (not real name) rescued from the Sambisa forest.

    “We are looking for your men. Do not run,” she remembers the gunmen saying when her village was stormed, leading to abduction of women and children. Another survivor, a pregnant Fatima (not real name) watched Boko Haram militants murder her husband and drag her three children away. Afterward, she was taken to the Sambisa Forest and ended up giving birth in the forest. She and her newborn were later rescued.

    The above tales of horror orchestrated by Boko Haram insurgents at the peak of their acts of terrorism in North-East Nigeria has been strongly condemned by the internal community including the United Nations (UN).

    The plain truth, yet a sad commentary, is that at the receiving end of the humanitarian crises arising from insurgency are women and children. The number of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and the refugees kept growing.

    The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the UN system in Nigeria put the total number of IDPs at 1,235,294 while 2,120 refugees and asylum seekers were registered as of 17 January 2015.

    According to Assessment Capacities Project, Start Network (ACAPS), the majority of IDPs are in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states, in the far northeast, but 47,276 IDPs are in Plateau, Nasarawa, Abuja, Kano, and Kaduna states.

    However, the magnitude and severity of needs remain more pressing in the northeast, where humanitarian emergency thresholds have been exceeded and access was for a long time extremely challenging.

    Thus, it is no longer news that hundreds of women and children were abducted and held in locations hitherto held by the insurgents, including the dreaded Sambisa forest. It is also not news that hundreds of women and children have been rescued and are still being rescued by the military.

    That a number of the women and girls rescued were very traumatised and found to be pregnant is also in the public sphere. However, that every pregnancy, regardless of circumstances leading to it, must be safe and delivered is the issue for the front burner of public discourse.

    No doubt, the women and girls have gone through hell in the hands of their abductors. Their rights have been infringed upon; they have been brutalised and abused; and many have lost their lives in the process. The lucky ones that are still alive are back and still far away from returning to their normal self. They, obviously, need all kinds of support: foods, non-foods, dignity kits, health support, education, livelihood, among others.

    Furthermore, every time there is a humanitarian emergency, the actors in the humanitarian field are quick to rush and repeatedly provide food and non-food items to the displaced population.

    Of course, that reinforces the African proverb that says, ‘If you resolve the challenges of feeding in the life of a poor man, then he is no longer poor.’ But over time, the reality of other equally critical needs set in. The pregnant women, the lactating mothers, women of reproductive age and the children have to be catered for specially.

    The United Nations through its specialised Agencies, Programmes and Funds and the government, with the benefit of hindsight, always anticipates this and in all cases, factors such into its response plans.

    The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) being the lead Agency of the UN in the area of Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) is committed to delivering a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every child birth is safe and every young person’s potential is fulfilled. Its mandate was determined by United Nations Members, including Nigeria.

    Indeed, Nigeria is one of the countries whose 1965 appeal to the UN ultimately inspired the creation of UNFPA a few years later.

    UNFPA in Nigeria is committed to save lives, restore dignity and rebuild broken lives of vulnerable women and girls.

    Within the context of the insurgency in the North-East and its humanitarian challenges especially as they affect women and children, UNFPA is addressing gender-based violence in humanitarian settings through a wide range of services, including counselling, post-rape treatment, legal support, assistance with livelihoods, and support through its Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) programs.

    Working with and through the government of Nigeria including in the states, UNFPA interventions in 2014 alone supported more than 16,000 safe deliveries in North East Nigeria; reached about 2.6 million women and girls with SRH services including for Gender Based Violence (GBV) management in North East Nigeria; and supported provision of modern family planning services to an estimated 2 million women and Couple Year Protection of 2.2million countrywide.

    It is gladdening to note that through its interventions and support, about two thousand maternal deaths were averted country wide while another one thousand free fistula treatment surgeries were supported with 97% success rate across the country.

    Explaining the SRH support to the rescued girls and women, the Director and Country Representative of UNFPA Nigeria, Ms Rati Ndhlovu, observed that “Upon the arrival of rescued women and children in Malkohi camp in Yola, UNFPA responded immediately by providing reproductive health care and psychosocial counselling to survivors of violence.

    “Women and girls who survive unimaginable trauma of captivity and brutalizing violence need immediate and compassionate care and UNFPA has been, as always, determined to ensure that they are given everything they need to be able to heal with dignity, safety and a restored sense of self-worth. After a few weeks of counselling, there was marked improvement in the survivors.”

    Restoring the livelihood and normal lifestyle of the rescued women and children and those that are displaced by the insurgency and military operations is the issue on the front burner of the UN system in the country.

    Of particular importance is ensuring that women can deliver babies safely and that they and girls can maintain their health, dignity, rights and self-worth even in the most challenging situations.

    “Our efforts”, Ms Ndlovu added, “are focused on supporting women and girls to restore their lives as quickly as possible and begin the process of healing to be able to fulfill their potential and once again resume productive lives.”

  • Osotimehin reappointed  UNFPA executive director

    Osotimehin reappointed  UNFPA executive director

    The United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, has reappointed Prof. Babatunde Osotimehin as the Executive Director of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund.

    In a statement on the appointment, the Secretary-General appreciated UNFPA’s progress in effective management of most disadvantaged women and adolescent girls.

    Upon reappointment, Osotimehin relives the past four years and describes it as an honour.

    He said, “It has been an honour to lead this extraordinary organization over the past four years, and I look forward to continuing our work together to improve the lives of women and adolescent girls and ensure that every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person’s potential is fulfilled.

    He also assured the public of UNFPA’s readiness to take on the forthcoming challenges.

    “Despite much progress in the 20 years since Cairo, we still have our work cut out for us. Fortunately, we know what we need to do and where we need to do it, and with our sharpened strategic focus, dedicated and skilled staff, commitment to excellence and to results, UNFPA has never been more ready to address the challenges ahead.”

    The reappointment is effective from 1 January 2015 through 31 December 2017.