West Nile commits to family planning uptake

GOVERNMENT | ARUA | WOMEN | GIRLS | FAMILY PLANNING

The district chairpersons in the West Nile region have pledged to accelerate governments’ commitment to transforming the lives of every woman and girl to have access to life-saving family planning services.

Launched on November 3, 2021, by the Minister of Health, Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng, the Uganda Family Planning 2030 commitment seeks the government's commitment to increase the modern contraceptive prevalence rate.

Thi seeks to increase annual funding, and ring-fence 50 percent of domestic resources allocated for procurement and distribution of family planning commodities.

At a regional stakeholder meeting to disseminate the family planning 2030 commitments to district leaders held in Arua City recently, and organized by the Agency for Cooperation in Research and Development (ACORD) with support from the International Rescue Committee(IRC), the leaders committed to integrating family planning practices into their annual district development plans to achieve an optimal uptake of family planning by 2030.

Abdulmutwalib Asiku

Ben Andama, the Senior Hospital Administrator at Arua regional referral hospital, said in a month the maternity ward on average delivers 671 babies, with most of the mothers still young.

This indicates the high levels of teenage pregnancy in the region.

“We deliver teenage mothers as young as 13 years old in the maternity ward. "It is serious here and something needs to be done,” said Andama.

Sunday Ayikoru, the vice chairperson of LC5, Terego district, says the focus should now change to the boy child who needs to know the dangers of teenage pregnancies.

“If we only focus on the girl child, we shall not move far in achieving this target because the boy children are the ones responsible for the teenage pregnancies and they need to be brought on board too," Ayikoru said.

Stephen Obitre, the LC5 Chairperson for Maracha district, reiterates that there is a need to involve religious and cultural leaders as some still discriminate against family planning.

“We have gone for barazas in the hard-to-reach areas, but it’s clearly seen that what our religious and cultural leaders preach to their followers is to produce and fill the earth, and this makes it hard to change the mindset of the people," said Obitre.

 According to the 2016 Uganda Demographic and Health Survey (UDHS), the total fertility rate in the West Nile region stands at 6.2 percent, compared to the national figure of 5.4 percent.

The survey reveals that the districts of Zombo and Arua have the highest rate of adolescent motherhood, with the lowest modern contraceptive prevalence rate and a high dependency burden.

To reduce the burden, this calls for action among district leaders as well as government commitments to improve the uptake of family planning.

Ben Anyama, the LC5 Chairperson for the Adjumani district, says there is a need to have concrete strategies to increase family planning uptake.

“Many of our people still do not embrace going for antenatal services and, therefore, it becomes difficult to educate them about the family planning services," Anyama laments

Abdulmutwalib Asiku, the LC5 Chairperson for the Yumbe district, says funding to districts is limited, which hampers the dissemination of family planning information.

However, the doctor in charge of maternal health in Koboko district, Agnes Adiru, says due to the hard economic situation, family planning uptake in most health facilities in the district is high.

Dr. John Baptist Tumusiime, the system strengthening manager at International Rescue Committee (IRC), while presenting Uganda’s commitments to Family Planning commitment 2030, said the government wants to ensure that every Ugandan has the right to health, education, autonomy, and personal decision-making about the number and timing of their childbearing.

“Family planning helps couples space their children and to achieve their desired family size. It also helps them with house savings.” Dr. Tumusiime said

What contains in the FP 2030 Commitments?

The Government of Uganda commits to increasing the modern contraceptive prevalence rate (mCPR) for all women from 30.4% in 2020 to 39.6% by 2025 and reducing unmet needs from 17% in 2020 to 15% by 2025.

Noting that Uganda is one of the youngest countries in the world, the Government of Uganda re-commits to annually allocating at least 10% of Maternal and Child Health (MCH) resources to adolescent responsive health services by July 2025.

The government of Uganda commits to annually ring-fencing 50% of the domestic resources allocated for procurement, warehousing, and distribution of FP commodities from the reproductive health (RH) commodities budget (NMS Vote 116 under Output 15-Supply of Reproductive Health Items) by 2025.

The Government of Uganda commits to improving FP data quality by ensuring the use of DHIS2/Health Management Information System (HMIS) data for decision-making at Service Delivery Points (SDPs) in the public and private sectors.

The Government of Uganda commits to improving the quality of FP counseling (available FP options, possible side effects, their management, and switching) among SDPs, community health workers, and peer-to-peer from the current Method Information Index Plus (MII+) I of 42% (2020) to 60% by 2025.