We will meet all our obligations on family planning – says health minister

Isaac Adewole, the Minister of Health  said the  Federal Ministry of Health would continue to meet all its financial obligations towards the provision of family planning commodities in the country despite the economic challenges.

The Minister made this known while declaring open the 4th Nigeria Family Planning Conference 2016 in Abuja, organized by the Federal Ministry of Health in collaboration with Association of the Advancement of Family Planning (AAFP) and Development Partners,a statement from the Ministry of Health said.

“Our commitment here is that in spite of the downturn in the economy we would continue to meet all our obligations, we will re-validate our MOU with UNFPA, that obliged us to put some funds in the basket that funds family planning commodities in Nigeria, we are committed under the existing MOU to put three million Dollar per year and for 2017 we will increase it to 4 million US Dollar”The statement said.

He said that the benefit of family planning was not only to prevent unwanted pregnancy, abortion related mortality but also to avert real mortality from whatever causes, it eliminates anemia and it  improves maternal health.

The Minister who said that family planning was beyond contraceptives described it as a low hanging fruit that could be applied to reduce maternal mortality in the country.

Adewole said that the Federal Ministry of Health would jointly work with all stakeholders on reproductive health to ensure that the misconception about family planning is cleared.

Also, the Chairman, Association for the Advancement of Family Planning , Ejike Oji said in the statement  that the Family planning conference was a biennial conferences that focuses on bringing  all family planning stakeholders to discuss and share experiences on the progress made and chart way forward towards improving the existing situation of family planning .

“We gather together to deliberate and engage with our religious and traditional rulers in a bid to learn from each other”

He said this year’s conference has special attention on Internally Displace Persons around the country that have a significant need for sexual and reproductive health and rights information and services especially with emerging reports of sufferance of sexual violence.

He urged the participants to explore opportunities and partnership that would translate into meeting the needs of the Internally Displaced Persons in the country.