Bisola Oduwole-Suleiman

Dr. John Godwin, Senior Registrar at the Department of Community Medicine and Epidemiology, University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), has urged the Nigerian government to provide free family planning services to address the country’s low contraceptive prevalence rate.

Speaking at a roundtable workshop organized by the Challenge Initiative (TCI) in collaboration with the DevCom Network, Dr. GODWIN emphasized the critical link between family planning and sustainable development goals. The event tagged “Unlocking sustainable development through Family planning: Exploring the connections between Population, Prosperity and the Planet” was organized to engage the media advocacy group in the state. He emphasized that the SDG goals 1 to 6 can be achieved through family planning.

Dr. Godwin highlighted the direct relationship between excessive population growth and various socio-economic challenges, including poverty and health issues. He argued that effective family planning could help regulate population growth thus leading to better management of natural resources and reducing pressures on agriculture, ecosystems, and national resources.

He further explained that a high population strain on education and health sectors could be mitigated through family planning. By ensuring that women can space their pregnancies, resources can be allocated more efficiently, enhancing the quality of education, health, and economic prosperity.

Dr. Godwin pointed out that family planning enables women to maximize their potential, chase their career goals and helps prevent poverty, inadequate resources, poor health, and low educational attainment.

Hajia Bashirat Adebukola Jatto, the family planning coordinator at the state Ministry of Health, echoed these sentiments. She noted the state government’s commitment to improving the contraceptive prevalence rate, which currently stands at 17% among women of reproductive age. She explained that unmet needs in family planning are usually high in rural areas and identified misinformation, hearsay and misconceptions about family planning, particularly in rural areas, as significant challenges. She also cited the fear of side effects such as prolonged or irregular bleeding and the cost of family planning as the reason for the low CPV rate in the state.

She stated the implementing a high impact method which involves the provision of free consumables, awareness creation especially in rural areas and engaging in community dialogue would increase access to family planning. Hajia Jatto commended the state government for ensuring the availability of commodities and TCI for supporting with consumables which are given out for free on designated days.

The TCI state program lead, Dr. Adewale Abiodun, represented by TCI program officer Mrs. Sharon Gabriel, stressed the importance of involving parents in family planning discussions with their children. He also called on media practitioners to engage opinion leaders, religious figures, and community leaders to address the low contraceptive prevalence rate.

The consensus among experts at the workshop was clear: making family planning services free and accessible is crucial for sustainable development and improving the socio-economic conditions in Nigeria.