Kwara Govt records improved family planning activities in 3 years — Commissioner
By Fatima Mohammed-Lawal
The Kwara Government on Tuesday disclosed that the state has recorded improved family planning activities in the past three and half years.
The Kwara Commissioner for Health, Dr. Amina El-Imam, stated this in Ilorin in her address at the The Challenge Initiative (TCI) Next Generation Dissemination and Transition meeting.
According to her, collaboration with family planning (FP) development partners has improved the uptake of FP modern contraceptive-methods across health facilities in the state.
She stated that development partners had helped to transform the state’s landscape of family planning and reproductive health services over the past three and half years.
“The collaboration with development partners had improved maternal and child health services, as well as empowered families.
“The partnership between TCI and state ministry of Health has been able to scale-up proven-to-work approaches for High Impact Practices, which was initially just a theory but now practical.
“Additionally, this partnership has helped strengthen the family planning system and data-use, fostered community engagements and demands, and has helped improved resource mobilization”, she said.
El-Imam called on relevant stakeholders in the state to give renewed pledge to prioritize family health as a cornerstone of development journey.
She also called for integration of these successes recorded by TCI into health programmes and policies, while continually innovate to meet the evolving health needs of citizens of the state.
The commissioner enjoined all relevant stakeholders, healthcare workers, and traditional rulers, to cooperate in ensuring that every resident in Kwara has access to quality reproductive health services.
Also speaking, the Director TCI, Nigeria, Dr. Taiwo Johnson, commended the state government and its personnel for providing enabling environment for development partners to succeed.
She said that the organization would continue to support at back-end to see that family planning situation in the state does not go back to what it used to be.
On his part, Mr Kunle Omotosho, a TCI Official described the three and half years collaboration of the group with the Kwara government in family planning as highly beneficial and impactful.
He called for improved finance and increase in social mobilization, while he hailed a record of 70 per cent uptake of family planning in the state. (NAN)
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