INTERVIEW: Why Nigeria must increase domestic funding for family planning

On this interview with PREMIUM TIMES, Koessan Kuawa, Deputy Nation Consultant of the United Nations Inhabitants Fund (UNFPA) Nigeria, discusses the challenges of restricted entry and availability of household planning instruments, the misconceptions and hesitancy surrounding contraception, and the pressing want to extend home funding to help Nigeria’s household planning programmes.

Excerpt

PT: Nigeria has the best inhabitants in Africa, with a excessive fertility charge and important unmet wants for household planning. What elements contribute to those unmet wants?

Mr Kuawa: The unmet want for household planning is primarily attributable to a scarcity of economic sources. Unmet want implies that individuals need entry however wouldn’t have it. Unmet wants for household planning are often attributable to a scarcity of contraceptive commodities or restricted data about the place to acquire them. In some instances, monetary constraints stop individuals from accessing these household planning instruments.

Nonetheless, the first purpose for the unmet want for household planning is the inadequate availability of commodities within the nation, largely attributable to insufficient funding.

PT: There are myths and misconceptions about household planning in Nigeria.

Mr Kuawa: Sure, there are various misconceptions about household planning. One such fable pertains to the effectiveness and security of various strategies.Individuals use numerous household planning strategies—some go for conventional strategies, whereas others depend on medical approaches. Nonetheless, some mistakenly use antibiotics or different drugs not supposed for contraception. This can be a harmful apply, as these drugs don’t stop being pregnant, regardless of widespread misconceptions. Worse nonetheless, they’ll result in critical well being issues and negatively influence ladies’s reproductive well being in the long term.A significant contributor to those false beliefs is the shortage of correct data and training, notably amongst younger individuals.

PT: Which group would you contemplate probably the most susceptible and that UNFPA prioritises when addressing restricted entry to household planning instruments?

Mr Kuawa: At UNFPA, we undertake a human rights-based and gender-transformative method, guaranteeing that entry to household planning is recognised as a basic human proper. It’s not a luxurious, neither is it coercive—it’s a proper that each particular person ought to have. Our objective is to make household planning companies and provides as extensively accessible as attainable, guided by the precept of leaving nobody behind.Our precedence teams embrace ladies and ladies in disadvantaged and distant communities, internally displaced individuals (IDPs), and other people dwelling in hard-to-reach areas. We additionally lengthen our focus to people with particular wants, corresponding to individuals with disabilities and people going through monetary obstacles that stop them from accessing household planning companies.

PT: So, how does UNFPA attain these individuals?

Mr Kuawa: We offer the companies utilizing a community-based method, whereby group staff present the data and entry. We additionally provide contraceptives that may be self-injected, which permits individuals who can not entry well being services or who’re too removed from well being services to manage the instruments themselves when they should.

We additionally advocate for states to make household planning a part of their primary companies. That means, individuals can entry some household planning instruments without charge on the main well being facility stage.

PT: Are there particular states that UNFPA prioritises probably the most?

Mr Kuawa: No, we don’t prioritise particular states or areas. As an alternative, our programmes are guided by the extent of want and the vulnerability of the inhabitants. Areas with larger vulnerability drive our focus, guaranteeing that household planning companies attain those that want them most.Our programme covers all the nation, however in some areas, different companions are already actively working. To keep away from duplication of efforts, we might not intervene in these areas. Nonetheless, we don’t prioritise any specific zone over one other.

PT: How would you describe the hesitancy towards household planning in numerous elements of the nation?

Mr Kuawa: When it comes to reluctance for the uptake of household planning, I believe all of it has to do with beliefs and social norms. All of it comes right down to having the right data. I can’t say it’s specific to Nigeria, however there are nonetheless some misconceptions about household planning, about even its reversibility. Some individuals consider that should you use it, you can be unable to have youngsters if you wish to have them later. For this reason training and public enlightenment are necessary. Offering the suitable data in any respect ranges to youths, ladies, and males in Nigerian communities will assist resolve this.

PT: What measures has the organisation carried out to reinforce public consciousness of household planning?

Mr Kuawa: What we do at UNFPA is figure with our companions. We work with the Ministry of Well being and the Ministry of Training to supply correct data to the general public. We prioritise data for the youth and hard-to-reach communities to allow them to make knowledgeable choices about their well being, figuring out what works and what doesn’t.

We additionally work to help the state governments in making fashionable strategies of contraception obtainable the place they’re unavailable. That is in order that they really feel much less must discover different strategies that aren’t advisable.

We even have a number of sources of data made obtainable, particularly to the youth now. We have now numerous platforms. We just lately launched a platform known as SoftLife 247 in October. It’s funded by UNFPA and UNESCO and permits youth to have a self-paced training. You go in at your individual tempo, you possibly can be taught in regards to the topics, and you’ve got entry to data in anonymity and confidentiality. We additionally produce other platforms that present comparable data to the youth. We have now a chatbot known as YouPlant, the place youth can ship textual content messages on WhatsApp to a chatbot that can present them with dependable data.

PT: Nigeria has one of many highest adolescent being pregnant charges in sub-Saharan Africa. What are the measures being carried out to enhance sexual training and reproductive well being for youngsters?

Mr Kuawa: I believe it is a essential and good query. You recognize, adolescents and youths are on the core of our programmes. So what we do is figure with authorities authorities, civil society organisations, group and spiritual leaders to design what we name complete life training and complete sexual training that gives correct and proper data to the youth.

We additionally ensure to supply culturally acceptable data and use age-appropriate language. You will need to contemplate the age of the individuals our data is addressed to. We would like the faculties to be concerned.

These are key instruments that we’re utilizing to begin addressing this as a result of a lack of expertise or data results in a few of the conditions that I’ve talked about.

PT: In culturally restrictive environments the place early sexual exercise is widespread, how can entry to household planning for younger ladies be successfully improved?

Mr Kuawa: There are totally different ways in which we’re approaching this downside. One is that we prepare the well being staff to have the ability to present youth-friendly companies to younger ladies and younger boys. Once more, right here we’re speaking a couple of human rights-based method, so it’s their proper to request these companies. We additionally work with a variety of well being services. We create what we name youth-friendly centres, the place these individuals who present the data or help the availability of the companies are equally youth. They’re individuals who perceive their friends and have been, let’s say, subjected to this type of resistance or barrier.

These centres are typically in well being services, typically in group services, and typically in class services. The objective is to make sure they supply younger individuals with the right data and path on entry the suitable companies.

PT: What’s the success charge in areas the place these centres have been created?

Kuawa: I’d not have the ability to provide you with some figures simply on high of my head now, however I do know, and it has been confirmed, not solely in Nigeria however in lots of nations, that the actual fact of offering the right data and making the pleasant companies obtainable can assist cut back teenage pregnancies, which are sometimes undesirable. It has confirmed to be a high-quality and efficient intervention that we encourage to be carried out throughout the board.

PT: You talked about earlier that one of many challenges for household planning programmes in Nigeria is the shortage of funding. How can we deal with this hole as a rustic and guarantee sustainable funding for reproductive well being initiatives?

Mr Kuawa: Yeah, the hole in household planning financing has been one thing now we have been coping with for some time, together with the authorities. A number of initiatives are underway; in the end, the answer depends on native home useful resource mobilisation.

The federal government itself has to extend its investments in household planning. I’m saying funding, not expenditure, as a result of the return on this funding is critical. It’s very excessive, not solely by way of well being but additionally by way of financial influence and the very, essential influence on the general well being end result.

Now, the federal government of Nigeria has been stepping up its contribution. Final 12 months, it contributed $4 million to procurement of commodities. We additionally advocate on the state stage, as a result of the $4 million I discussed is on the federal stage. State governments have additionally been making funds obtainable to acquire household planning commodities to fill or cut back the hole that we’re experiencing. We’re additionally working with the personal sector as a result of that is one other necessary supply of contribution.

On our personal facet, we work with our donor communities to proceed contributing to our basket fund for household planning and to not cut back their contributions. So, I believe it’s a work in progress. We have now seen some outcomes, however the hole continues to be there, and we nonetheless have an extended approach to go.

PT: Are you able to spotlight these gaps?

Mr Kuawa: Sure, if my reminiscence serves me effectively, final 12 months, for instance, we had an estimated want of just about $30 million for household planning commodities. Nonetheless, there was a niche of round $13 million. You see, it is a important shortfall. The issue is that the hole retains rising as a result of there are extra individuals who need the companies, who’re extra conscious and who’re keen to take the companies or commodities. That is excellent news, however it requires further funds. So, yearly, the necessity is rising, and although the sources are additionally rising, the hole continues to be there.

PT: How would you expect the nation’s future on this facet?

Mr Kuawa: It is rather troublesome to foretell. What I can inform is that there’s a constructive pattern. A constructive pattern within the sense that there are an increasing number of individuals who perceive the usefulness, the advantages of household planning for the general good of their households.

There are individuals who an increasing number of perceive that you could have the variety of youngsters you possibly can handle, and there are strategies that may show you how to to make that call. Extra individuals perceive that no one will pressure you to have fewer or much more youngsters. You determine the way you need it. So, I see that constructive pattern.

The opposite good factor that now we have noticed once we go to the sphere is that now we have seen males additionally taking their spouses to the hospital for all of the antenatal care and counseling. Increasingly more males are a part of it, so that they perceive and are extra supportive of their ladies. So, I believe there’s some constructive pattern, and I hope it will result in a brilliant future for our nation.

PT: Do you suppose the US support freeze can worsen the scenario?

Mr Kuawa: The household planning programme that now we have within the nation, not less than the half that’s managed by UNFPA, isn’t impacted per se. It’s not immediately impacted, however the world panorama is altering. It’s not nearly a selected donor, it’s the complete panorama that’s altering, and as all people is saying, it is a wake-up name for all of us, particularly in our nation. This can be a name to step up our recreation and see how rather more we are able to do ourselves. So, I’ll say that since it’s a wake-up name, I hope that all of us step up and do greater than now we have been in a position to take action far, in order that we are able to proceed to attain the end result that we set for ourselves.

PT: Nigeria’s inhabitants is projected to exceed 377 million by 2050, which is simply 25 years from now. Do you contemplate this a welcomed improvement, or does it pose any problem to the nation?

Mr Kuawa: I believe inhabitants development may be a possibility, however it might probably additionally pose a variety of challenges. It is dependent upon how effectively we’re capable of navigate and handle it as a result of inhabitants development might be a supply of financial development for a rustic. Nonetheless, it’s going to solely be a constructive issue when now we have a wholesome, well-educated inhabitants that contributes to the nation’s productiveness.

What is going to make the distinction is actually the investments that the nation is ready to make in well being, training, and job creation. If we’re capable of make the mandatory investments within the training of the youth, within the well being of the individuals, in job creation, and particularly to be sure that ladies, ladies and youth turn out to be a productive workforce, that can be constructive for the nation. But when we fail to try this, it turns into a problem as a result of then there can be extra individuals counting on the nation’s smaller wealth, which can be a supply of another challenges, together with some type of insecurity, some unemployment, and troublesome dwelling circumstances for the individuals. It might be one thing good whether it is effectively managed.

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PT: The UNFPA performs a key function in reproductive well being advocacy. Are you able to spotlight some main methods the UNFPA has collaborated with the federal government to enhance entry and consciousness on this space?

Mr Kuawa: Sure, there are numerous ways in which now we have been doing advocacy basically, beginning by working with the authorities and the well being workforce to coach them in order that they’ll perceive and relay data to the general public. However we additionally work with the communities. We have now a group—the CSO community-based organisations that we work with—together with faith-based and group leaders who, after they perceive and champion this, may be very, very highly effective vectors of change.

PT: Based mostly on the UNFPA’s groundwork, are there some particular forms of household planning programmes that persons are extra inclined to help?

Mr Kuawa: Yeah, that may be a good query, however my technical workforce is healthier at answering this. Anyway, ladies are demanding slightly extra of the reversible strategies. Meaning strategies that they’ll use, which have some impact for a time frame however may be reversed simply. Not strategies which are particular, like these that can stop future occurrences or cease them from having youngsters sooner or later.

From my understanding, reversible strategies are in demand—additionally these that may be renewed with much less frequency. Relying on the necessity, some strategies final for 3 months, others for an extended interval, however then they are often reversed as quickly as they wish to have extra youngsters.

PT: Does the organisation additionally present sensitisation on emergency contraceptives

Mr Kuawa: When speaking about emergency contraceptives, this often means the particular person didn’t undertake a way prematurely of intercourse. That’s why training is so necessary—individuals must know what strategies can be found and the advantages of every one.

It’s essential to make sure that this data is extensively accessible. This consists of spreading consciousness by numerous means, corresponding to mass communication, sensitisation efforts, and group outreach.

In some states, we even have group well being champions who go round offering this data, serving to individuals perceive that they’ll take preventive measures as an alternative of counting on emergency contraceptives.

This method helps. As soon as training is mixed with the provision of contraceptives, it ought to ideally cut back the usage of emergency contraceptives.