Nigeria Urban Reproductive Health Initiative (NURHI) at the weekend called on the Federal Government to properly fund the National Family Planning programme so as to check Nigeria’s population growth.
Mojisola Odeku, the project director of NURHI, at a programme in Lagos to create awareness on the use of modern contraceptives, said poor funding currently challenged the programme.
Odeku said NURHI, a project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, “focuses on very poor population in the city slums,” saying it would be more effective if the government gave adequate support to the programme.
Historically, the Federal Government has been supportive of the national family planning programme by the adoption of appropriate policies; however, financial investment in family planning has been very low.
At the NURHI project inception, there was no budget line for family planning, and policy actions in support of family planning were almost nil, resulting in low stock of commodities, inadequate skill staff, poor dilapidated facilities and environment not conducive for quality family planning services.
“The resultant low turnout of women for family planning services was a big challenge. The socio-cultural environment was filled with suspicion and misinformation about family planning and high level of myths and misconceptions,” Odeku said.
To overcome the challenges, she said the agency had adopted an entertainment education approach to propagate importance of family planning to overall development of the society by appointing the popular musicians, comedians and Nollywood actors as its ambassadors.
“To increase demand for family planning, NURHI has appointed Paul Okoye of the P. Square fame, Tiwa Savage as national ambassadors. While Nolloywood actor, Mike Ezuruonye, Odunlade Adekola, Ali Nuhu, and Godwin Komone, popularly known as Gordons, will act as regional ambassadors in the South-East, South-West, North and South-South of the country, respectively,” she said.
The programme tagged ‘Get it Together’ is aimed at breaking the barriers that act as impediment to the use of contraceptives, she said.
“NURHI 11 project envisions a Nigeria where supply and demand barrier to contraceptive use are eliminated and family planning becomes a social norm. Its primary outcome will be a positive shift in family planning social norm at the structural, services and community levels that drive increases in contraceptive prevalence rates in Kaduna, Lagos and Oyo,” she said.
JOSHUA BASSEY
