Kwara pledges improved commitments to family planning, sustainable reproductive health

Kwara State Government has asserted that the collaboration with family planning development partners have assisted in transforming the State’s landscape of family planning and reproductive health services over the past three and half years.

Speaking at The Challenges Initiative (TCI), Nextgen Dissemination and Transition meeting held in Ilorin, the State capital, Amina El-Imam, Commissioner for Health, noted that the partnership improved maternal and child health services, as well as empowered families

“Through the partnership between TCI and State Ministry of Health, TCI 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 help strengthen the family planning system and data use, fostered community engagements and demands, and has helped improved resource mobilization”, she said.

El-Imam, who called on relevant stakeholders in the State to give renewed pledge to prioritise family health as a cornerstone of development journey, said that, “We must integrate these successes recorded by TCI into our health programmes, policies and continually innovate to meet the evolving health needs of Kwarans.

Read also: Population, poverty, and the case for family planning in Nigeria

“Looking ahead, I call upon all relevant stakeholders here present, our development partners, the healthcare workers, and our traditional rulers, to continue working together, ensuring that every resident in Kwara State has access to quality reproductive health services.

“Let us remain steadfast in our commitment to making Kwara State a model for quality family planning service delivery in the country”.

The Commissioner, however pledged to sustain momentum achieved so far, while she commended Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq for providing an enabling environment for development partners to support the State in improving its health indices.

“Another testament to His Excellency’s giant strides is the facilitation of the European Union grant for Strengthening Access to Reproductive and Adolescent Health (EU-SARAH) programme to Kwara State”, she noted.

Taiwo Johnson, Country Director, TCI Nigeria, lauded the State Government and its personnel for providing enabling environment for development partners to succeed.

She assured 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.

Similarly, Kunle Omotosho of the TCI, who spoke on “State Self Reliance- Expectations Post Graduation and Way Forward (Insights towards sustainability), described the collaboration of the Group with the Kwara State Government in driving family planning as highly beneficial and impactful.

He called for improved social mobilisation, increase post-mortem use, strengthen family planning access to women and ensure availability of more commodities to boost family planning uptake.