Some clients at Tundun Wada facility waiting to be attended to.
By Marie-Therese Nanlong
Jos – It is no longer news that population explosion due to unplanned childbirth has done more harm to the Nigerian economy than good.
In the recent past, citizens were being sensitized and even begged to adopt the many child birth spacing methods available.
Resources from foreign donors were deployed to drive the advocacy for Nigerians to embrace family planning.
At the time there is a modest acceptance as well as the need to continue to drive the process as many families are now open to the option of family planning, funding gap is threatening to reverse the gains recorded in the uptake of family planning in Plateau State.
Despite a series of advocacy visits and sensitization, non-release of budgeted funds is derailing activities in the State and appealed to the State government to ensure timely release of funds for the purchase of commodities and consumables as well as train and retrain caregivers is yielding very little result.
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For instance, in the 2020 budget where the sum of N23m was budgeted for family planning, only N2m was released as confirmed by the State Family Planning Coordinator, Rahila Telfim.
At a day media roundtable tagged: Breaching the funding gap on family planning services in Plateau State organized by the Media for Family Planning with support from The Change Initiative, TCI, she noted, “even when N23million was budgeted in 2020, only N2million was released and the amount was used for distribution of family planning commodities from last quarter of last year to date.”
However, this dwindling financial commitment has increased cases of unmet needs among clients who are interested in assessing family planning services and impacted negatively on activities as visits to some Primary Healthcare Centres in the State show a decline in its uptake.
State Secretary, Voice for Family Planning, Hannatu Dung, who appealed to the government at all levels to consciously invest in family planning activities stressed, “There must be a conscientious commitment of all parties, federal, state and local governments. Budget provisions should be backed up with timely cash releases, these will improve the uptake of family planning services and reduce out of pocket spending which can discourage especially low-income women.
“According to Nigeria Demographic Health Survey, NDHS of 2018, Plateau has a high unmet family planning need. Due to insufficient funding, family planning services aren’t reaching the people as expected. The state has a growing but slow contraceptive prevalence which is currently at 22 per cent based on the said survey.”
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However, the PHC in Jos Jarawa, Jos North local government area which used to have over 200 clients each month now has less than 100 clients in the last six months and the PHC, Tudun Wada, in the same area has run out of stock for the injectables and clients are left stranded.
While some opt for other methods, others lament the side effect they suffer when changing methods frequently and rather prefer to wait for their preferred method to be available.
This decision may raise tension in homes in the event of any incident hence the need for the government to have a change in attitude towards family planning.
Speaking with our correspondent, Family Planning Officer of the Jos Jarawa PHC, Tabitha Azi said “We give those that are willing the kind of method they prefer, we counsel them, tell them about the methods and show them as well. The challenge we have most is, before now, we had supplies regularly and we gave everything out free but now, the commodities have not been supplied to us, it is getting up to four to six months now, we have not received commodities.
“Our clients are not turning up like before. We now go to buy commodities, when we buy and ask the clients to pay, they will be complaining that the money is too much. They will say they were told that it is free, the turnout is very poor due to lack of commodities.
“We report even to the local government, we have been told that supplies are not yet in. We don’t want the clients to go unattended to, before now, we do get between 100 and 200 in a month but now we don’t even have up to 100 in a month. The male clients come here for condoms.”
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At PHC Tudun-Wada, the Chief Nursing Officer and caregiver, Mrs. Vou Johnmark said although the facility is hugely supported by Marie Stopes, TCI and others, it has run out of stock for injectables and clients from places including Plateau, Abuja, Nasarawa, Bauchi, Kano and others are in urgent need.
Hadiza Ibrahim, a mother of 10 said she prefers the injectable saying, “I married at the age of 18, my first child is 22 years, I have kids ages five, four and so on. My husband asked me to come so I came here to collect the injection.
“I really need to rest. That is why I am not joking with the method I am using but I am told that there are no injectables, I will wait for it to come.”
The State has over 740 health facilities that provide family planning services in its 17 local government areas but most of the facilities require major facelifts.
