Association for the Advancement of Family Planning (AAFP) has urged the media to do more toward educating Nigerians about the advantages of Family Planning (FP) to achieving Demographic Dividends (DD).
The Chairman of the association, Dr. Ejike Oji, made the call during a Media Roundtable in Abuja on Saturday, in preparation for the forthcoming 6th Nigeria Family Planning Conference holding in Abuja from Dec. 7 to Dec. 10.
The theme of the conference is “Post FP 2020 Agenda and Safeguarding Investment in Emergencies: Adaptation, Innovation, Resilience.”
The chairman of AAFP, a non-profit organisation with special interest in family planning, emphasised the importance of continuous enlightenment for increased access to quality and innovative information and services in the country.
Oji, who is also the Chairman of the Technical Management Committee for the FP conference explained that the media had the responsibility to clear the misconceptions and myths around contraceptives and family planning, stressing that “there is urgent need for advocacy for increased budgetary allocation, timely release and utilisation of funds for FP by governments at all levels.”
He reiterated the importance of media involvement in Family Planning advocacy, saying it would help to capture interventions for visible hard-to-reach adolescents while working with government and partners to develop the family planning annual scorecard.
The medical practitioner emphasised the need to develop effective strategies on Family Planning policy advocacy with regards to the COVID-19 pandemic, Gender Based Violence (GBV) and other emergencies, noting that “the forthcoming conference is expected to evolve new avenues for sustainable and innovative healthcare provisions and access to family planning.”
He said it was time to draw stakeholders’ attention to the present status of family planning commitments in Nigeria, as well as chart a new course toward the development of new commitments beyond 2020.
The chairman commended the media for bringing family planning issues to the front burner and called for stronger relationship among partners involved in family planning advocacy.
Dr. Mojisola Odeku, a FP Portfolio Director in Nigeria, also emphasised the need to scale-up advocacy to change the misconception about child birth spacing.
She spoke on “The Future of Family Planning in Nigeria, Leading the Advocacy and Demand,” saying that the choice of family planning method to use had been a big challenge that made many people to take the wrong step.
She added that even though FP was entirely the choice of the people involved as there was no compulsion about it, the lack of communication between partners had caused many problems “because many people prefer to ask their friends instead of contacting experts.
“Promoting dialogue on the concept, from the national, state and local government levels is critical to legitimise open discussions; we need impactful advocacy for policy to change.
“Advocacy forum is the platform for sustainable policy development; we need to promote open dialogue and establish social acceptable norm for family planning.”
Odeku, therefore, urged the media to lead the advocacy to change the narrative.She also called on traditional rulers and religious leaders to be partners in championing the desired change about family planning.
She also spoke on the need for constant tracking of family planning funds, especially government’s counterpart contribution, to ensure effective implementation of policies.
According to her, funding gap must be bridged to get good results.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the forthcoming FP Conference seeks to make resources available for full implementation of policies developed to increase access to contraceptives and boost economic development, especially during the current economic recession.
Consequently, the role of the media in advocating for full implementation of relevant policies cannot be overemphasised.
