Expert blames early marriage, lack of education, information as cause for Nigeria’s low CPR in family planning
A Public Health Physician Dr. Amina Aminu Dorayi, has blamed inadequate information and education as part of reasons for low Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR) in Nigeria.
Dorayi who is also Country Director Pathfinder International disclosed this in an interview with journalists shortly after a capacity building workshop for journalists, Training of Trainers (TOT), for the sustainability of Advanced Family Planning (AFP) project.
According to her, issues around family planning should be addressed as a human capital development, noting that for those who wouldn’t space their children for health reasons the economy has given them pragmatic reasons.
Punch HealthWise reports that CPR is the percentage of women who are using or whose partners are currently using barring the type of method adopted. Nigeria is aimed at attaining 27 percent prevalence rate by 2024.
Recall that Nigeria has about 5.5 percent total fertility rate in Sub-Saharan Africa based on 2018 National Demographic Health Survey.
Dorayi said, “Family Planning is a bit different from pregnancy and delivery. This because for pregnancy you will see it and you will have to go to hospital but for family planning the people are basically healthy. The culture that makes people think they have to have so many children or how religion is interpreted. It is both supply and demand. The reason I feel making sure that Basic Education for young girls is mandatory so that they get to age 18, by secondary school level before they get married. So, early marriage is one of the things that drives our Contraceptive Prevalence Rate to be very low.
“Information both women and girls need to know the importance of spacing their children. The economy has also shown it, it so clear now that if you don’t want to plan your family for health reasons, you can plan for economic reasons. Too frequent pregnancies, too many pregnancies without taking care of the body. So, it is coming to the fore that family planning is important for human capital development and we have to address it as a holistic approach not as a health matter only.”
Commenting on the sustainability of Advanced Family Planning, Dorayi revealed that more is required to reach both policy and decision makers in ensuring increased Contraceptive Prevalence Rate.
“We brought journalists from about 10 states of the Federation and the federal capital territory to build their capacity. These journalists being trained are already seasoned journalists. It been quite some years that we have been implementing the Advanced Family Planning (AFP) funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation through the John’s Hopkins University. The project is gradually rounding off.
“This training is expected to increase commitment towards family planning budget, policy implementation for family planning which will impact on overall reproductive health of women and families in general. As we leave this project if we build more capacity it will mean that they will use the capacity to communicate with policy makers. This will call smart advocacy through knowing whom the policy makes are, trying to reach out to them trying to ensure that the advocacy objective is met to improve health of women and girls in Nigeria.”
While calling on government for improved funding and release, she noted various efforts by her organisation to ensure improved reproductive health of women.
Dorayi said, “We have been able to support communities, with other CSO’s to bring family planning to the national agenda. We have built a crop of advocates at the national and sub national levels.
“Proper budgeting for family planning will reduce maternal and child mortality. We are not happy with the budget of health in general and also for reproductive health and family planning.
“Policy makers need to have all the necessary information to realise and recognise the importance of both family planning sexual and reproductive health and health in general. Civil Society Organisations should never get tired in advocacy, we should continue to advocate to them.”
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