8th Nigeria Family Planning Conference Ends with Pledges to Implement Conference Outcomes and Agreements
By Justina Asishana, The Nation Newspaper & ASHENEWS
The 8th Nigeria Family Planning Conference (NFPC) has ended with pledges from all stakeholders to implement the agreements and recommendations made during the conference.
The conference had the participation of 1,297 people from various organizations, women-focused groups from Nigeria and abroad and the Nigeria presidency, the National Assembly, Ministries, Department and Agencies, state governments, development partners, CSOs, conference sponsors and donors, both national and international.
The Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Salako Iziaq Adekunle Adeboye was represented by the Director and Head, of Gender Adolescent School, Health and Elderly (GASHE) in the Ministry, Dr Ovuoraye John who gave the assurance of the government said that all the decisions and agreements made during the conference would be looked into on order to look at ways of implementing them.
He said the government would work towards ensuring Nigeria achieves the Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR) before 2030, assuring of the support of the government in family planning programmes and projects.
“We are pledging that all that has transpired here will be implemented. The outcome of this conference will go a long way to help us in actualizing the 27.5 per cent in Nigeria before 2030”.
The Gombe state Commissioner of Health, Dr Habu Haliru, who spoke on behalf of the 36 Commissioners of Health in Nigeria, promised that the state would sustain the gains in family planning programmes and projects while they would work harder in advocating for more funding and timely release of funds for family planning in the states.
“We will also work at ensuring that the vulnerable and people with special needs get more access to family planning programmes and commodities."
Niger State Family Planning Coordinator, Nurse Dorcas Talati Abu, who represented all family planning Coordinatore across Nigeria, noted that the conference has been impactful in addressing issues tied to family planning, ng, adding that the family planning coordinators would work more towards advocating for more funding and release to support family planning activities in the states.
“We will work to ensure that more girls and women and even men reach their potentials through the impact of family planning."
A look inside the NFPC 2024
The participants during the three-day conference agreed and expressed their concern on the imperative of looking for other funding sources for family planning, involvement of states, private sectors and health insurance to cover all the family planning services and activities and the need to maintain the availability of family planning commodities.
The private sector was urged to look beyond their corporate social responsibility to include efforts to make sure there is commodity security while the need for sector-wide approaches was emphasized.
The Participants noted the need to increase the family planning contraceptives prevalence rate by two per cent every year to reach 27 per cent by 2030.
Faith-based leaders were urged to move in the fields to advocate for family planning in ways that are more visible and create avenues for acceptance of other contraceptive methods into religious teachings, while traditional customs and norms that sustain male preference in child conception should be discouraged with increased involvement of men in all family planning thematic areas.
The participants also commended the commitment of the federal government to address the challenges of family planning in Nigeria by committing one per cent of the health budget to family planning.
The support of development partners and CSOs to achieve Nigeria's family planning targets was advocated for.
Stay tuned for more community-driven, community-inspired reporting from the 8th Nigerian Family Planning Conference, taking place December 3–6, 2024.