‘Meeting family planning needs of women, an investment’

womenIn celebrating the 2017 World Population Day, an expert in Family Planning, Mrs Charity Ibeawunchi has said that Nigeria’s attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will depend significantly on how well the s3xual and reproductive health and rights of women and young people are fulfilled. Mrs Charity Ibeawunchi, Senior Technical Advisor, Advocacy, NURHI, Abuja, who spoke on the 2017 WPD theme, “Family Planning, Child Spacing: Empowering People, Developing Nations”, stated that catering for family planning needs of women and young people is a cost effective investment to ensuring economic growth and sustainable development. She said that the 2013 National Demography and Health Survey reports that more than 16 per cent of Nigerian women who seek to use family planning services fail to gain access to such services, adding that this was an attestation of the unmet needs for them to space or limit their pregnancies. According to her, family planning and /or child spacing is a voluntary, informed personal decision but with a profound implications on health, economic and social well being of the society. Mrs Ibeawunchi stated that evidence from research shows that successful family planning contribute to 33 per cent reduction of maternal mortality and child mortality by 20 per cent. “Women with choices and greater reproductive health are better empowered to seek and keep better jobs and contribute more to their families and nation’s prosperity. “Their families are better off financially and their children receive better education, helping trigger a cycle of prosperity that carries well into future generations. This produces demographic dividends and enhances global prosperity. “Voluntary family planning as a human right is central towards poverty reduction; it is indeed central to gender equality and cannot be easily wished away. “It is also critical during humanitarian crises which are often characterised by s3xual violence, intimate-partner-violence, child marriage and high risk behaviours such as survival, transactional and commercial s3x,” she said. Mrs Ibeawunchi, however, stressed the need for increased investment in family planning, adding that “investing in family planning is investing in the health and rights of women and couples worldwide.”