Dr Amina Dorayi, a Physician and Public Health Practitioner, has stressed the need for increased youths’ involvement in efforts toward the advancement of Family Planning (FP) in the country. She said this in an interview with Newsmen in Abuja, on the sidelines of a youth event before the opening of the 6th Nigeria Family Planning […]
Dr Amina Dorayi, a Physician and Public Health Practitioner, has stressed the need for increased youths’ involvement in efforts toward the advancement of Family Planning (FP) in the country.
She said this in an interview with Newsmen in Abuja, on the sidelines of a youth event before the opening of the 6th Nigeria Family Planning conference on Dec. 10.
The conference is a biennial gathering that brings together stakeholders to brainstorm on progress made so far, identify emerging issues on family planning/reproductive health and chart the way forward toward improving the existing situation.
The family planning conference has “Post FP 2020 Agenda and Safeguarding Investments in Emergencies: Adaptation. Innovation. Resilience” as its theme.
Dorayi, who is also the Country Director of Pathfinder International, said youths were not just critical drivers of message of family planning, but achieving Demographic Dividends (DD).
She, therefore, called for collective commitment irrespective of sex, age or status, noting that it was important to make family planning as globally important as COVID-19.
She said “it is time to consider family planning a global issue.
“We need to ensure that we do not shy away from family planning because we missed a lot as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown that followed it.”
She explained that during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, access to healthcare services became impossible, as both the healthcare providers and the sick avoided hospitals for fear of being infected with the virus.
She said that while family planning services and commodities became hard to access, cases of Gender Based Violence (GBV) on the other hand increased, which may lead to many unintended pregnancies.
Dorayi, however, expressed optimism that the unmet needs of family planning would be met, using youths as necessary vanguards.
Mrs Kemi Oluwagbon of Johns Hopkins University, Centre for Communicative Programmes, Nigeria Urban Reproductive Health Initaitive (NURHI) also described youths as champions in advocacy.
Oluwagbon said youths were critical in promoting family planning, with emphasis on the human centre design approach.