TCI Review Meeting: Stakeholders discuss family planning progress, challenges, way forward in Osun

By Deborah Oladejo, Osogbo

The Osun State Family Planning Coordinator, Mrs Ololade Abatan, has revealed that despite the successes recorded in the state’s family planning program, there is still a significant gap in access to family planning services.

Speaking at The Challenge Initiative (TCI) year 3 endline review meeting held in Osogbo, Abatan stated that the state has achieved a 6% increase in Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR), moving from 29% in 2018 to 35% in 2023/2024, according to Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) report.

She however noted that 22.9% of women of childbearing age still lack access to quality family planning services.

“This means that out of 10 women, 3 still don’t have access to quality family planning services, and our goal is to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality rate and to achieve this, family planning services must be readily available to our women,” she emphasised.

To address this challenge, Abatan outlined the State’s plan to provide further training for service providers, ensure the provision of commodities and consumables, reach more women of child bearing age and generate demand for family planning services through media awareness campaigns.

Also speaking, the Adolescent Health Desk Officer at the Osun State Primary Health Care Board, Mrs. Oluwabunmi Akinlabi, emphasized the importance of family planning in reducing teenage pregnancy.

Akinlabi noted that teenage pregnancy is a major cause of maternal mortality and morbidity, and that the is working to sensitize communities on the issue.

“We always preach abstinence to our adolescents, but for those who are already sexually active, we also preach the use of family planning methods to prevent unplanned pregnancy. We are not training them to be promiscuous but what we are saying is the danger of unplanned pregnancy because for any adolescent that get pregnant, they will also want to do one or two things which may be harmful for them to remove that pregnancy.

“Every adolescent girl who starts menstruating is considered part of the women of reproductive age. As soon as a girl begins menstruating, she is anatomically and medically capable of getting pregnant if she has sex. To prevent unplanned pregnancy, we recommend that sexually active girls use a family planning method, such as condoms or other forms of contraception, to prevent unintended pregnancy, which can lead to unsafe abortion and even death,” Akinlabi said.