As Nigeria joins the rest of the world to mark this year’s World Contraception Day, civil society organisations have lamented the poor funding and attention for family planning in the country.
The CSOs, under the aegis of Partnership for Advocacy in Child and Family Health at Scale (PACFaH@Scale), urged the government to increase efforts towards supporting family health.
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Briefing newsmen on Monday during the inaugural meeting of champions and advocacy CSOs in Abuja, they said the Nigerian government committed to a 27 percent modern contraceptive prevalence by 2020, but that the rate “is only 12 percent till date.”
The CSOs, in their call to action read by Dr Ejike Orji of the Association for Advancement of Family Planning, said a major reason for not meeting this national target was the inadequacy of family planning financing.
Director, Family Health Department, Federal Ministry of Health, Dr Salma Ibrahim Anas, said the government had been working with advocates and established interface groups in not less than 20 states for advocacy for resources for family planning and awareness creation in the country.
She said the government would strengthen the advocacy group at the national level and the relationship with CSOs to ensure resources are used transparently and improve the contraceptive prevalence rate.
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