As part of measures to increase the number of family planning users and also attract more partners/donors with the view to improve maternal health in Delta State, the government has commenced moves to create a specific budget line for reproductive health activities in the Ministry of Health’s 2019 budget.
The state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Mordi Ononye, made this know during the meeting on Contraceptive Technology Update (CTU) for policymakers organized by The Challenge Initiative in Asaba.
He reiterated the position of the state government that planning and budgetary allocations for development always take into cognizance the issue of population in order to be able to deliver the benefits of development.
Ononye commended the efforts of The Challenge Initiative and assured that government will do all within its capacity to keep the partnership with the Initiative alive.
Earlier, Dr. Winful-Orieke Jude, Executive Director, State Primary Health Care Development Agency, in his welcome address, thanked The Challenge Initiative for their support in boosting the activities of reproductive health and urged them to continue to support the State.
He said that the contraceptive Technology Update (CTU) for policy makers meeting would afford the state the opportunity to create a roadmap on the implementation of family planning activities to carter for the family planning needs of its citizenries.
In an overview presented by the state programme coordinator, The Challenge Initiative (TCI), Mrs. Nwanne Kalu, said that they were intervening in 13 local government areas and were expecting the state to replicate the same in the remaining 12 council areas.
She said the initiative provided technical assistance to the State Ministry of Health through the Reproductive Health Unit to improve maternal health through innovative family Planning models with the view to improving services and thereby increasing the number of family planning users in the state.
Kalu revealed that from the survey carried out there was the need to step up advocacy on the acceptance of modern contraceptive methods in the state with the view to having more persons speaking favorably in public on family planning issues.
Source: independence.ng
