Family planning use will enable women engage in enterprise, politics, says Ibeawuchi

Charity Ibeawuchi, Senior Technical Advisor, Advocacy, John Hopkin University, Centre for Communications Programme


Nigerian Urban Reproductive Health Initiative (NURHI) has been in the vanguard of advocacy for Family Planning in Nigeria, especially for people in the reproductive age bracket since 2009. No wonder the stakeholders gathered at Development Communications (DEVCOMS) Headquarters in Lagos on Wednesday, to review the activities of the initiative, scope of work, challenges, sustainability and community Focus and other related issues.  Mrs. Charity Ibeawuchi, the Senior Technical Advisor, Advocacy for the John Hopkin University, Centre for Communication Programs, Nigerian Urban Reproductive Project, Phase Two (HURHI) granted interview to SUCCESS DAMIAN, Excerpts.

Why the meeting today?

The HURHI 2 Project has been in Nigeria since 2016 and it is a follow up project of Nurhi, Nigerian Urban Reproductive Initiative Project which focuses on urban areas, and started in 2009, so as a result of the success of the Phase 1 project Bill and Millinda Gate Foundation, provided additional funding for the sustainability that the first phase innovated, and established to promote increases use of family planning, child birth spacing services in Nigeria. Because at the beginning of the project, Nigeria CPR which is Contraceptive Prevalence Rate on use of modern family planning method, was very low, and this was consistent for more than three decades, so the project came on board, as part of global Initiative, to promote other family planning use, Nigeria being one of the countries. 

Other countries were Senegal, India and Kenya. So Nigeria with a large population and poor population of women that do not have access to modern family planning services was chosen and we spent the first five years trying to change behavior  of Nigerian women, targeting women of reproductive age, increasing opportunities for them, particularly those leaving in poor urban slums, that  are highly and completely deprived of the services, to really use the services, to see family planning as life saving investment, and that helped to increase the number of women, so we were able to increase modern family planning use, CPR, from very low national 10% and we achieved an average of 11.5 increase in six Nigerian cities, Abuja FCT, Ibadan, Ilorin Kaduna, Zaria, and Benin City, so that is a remarkable improvement. 

Discussion about family planning improved, women are more confident to go to clinic to use family planning services, conversation between husband and wife about child birth spacing improved,  family planning use improved, young people received information that would help them build their future, in spacing and being healthy, and that was very important.

On the role played by the media

I want to use this opportunity to thank the media; the media played a very important role in this. We could hear about family planning discussion on air, religious leaders were there, discussion were placed on the print, television, the entertainment people were even very supportive, we heard Tiwa Savage and P-Square (Paul) being part of the family planning songs, and the household word was get it together, No dolling, know about family planning, talk about family planning, go for family planning services.

Your comment on some religion having as many as four wives

Even when a woman is having children she needs to space, you cannot be getting pregnant every year, it is a big risk, that woman will have challenges and complications that may even make her lose her life, so you need family planning to encourage women to space birth in a healthy way, well timed, so even the religion of Islam, even Christian religion encourages us to space, in Islam women are encouraged to breastfeed for 24 months, and by the time the next child is born, the older sibling is three years, so that is family planning. We are not looking at the number of children you have, we are looking at the opportunities you give to your wife to space and live longer, to do that which the woman has been ordained to do.

We are not looking at marriage, we are looking at the woman, the right of every woman in Nigeria of reproductive age between the ages of 15 to 49, the right of every man between the ages of 15 to 50, that is what you call the reproductive age, to have proper information, and to use family planning services as a right, and it has to be voluntary, and the woman understands the benefits of using family planning, it is to make her healthy, because we know that family planning reduces maternal mortality  by about 40%.

And we know also that it prevents child mortality, promotes the health of the child, reducing their death by 25%. Because when a woman uses family planning, she gives birth to a child when she desires it, when pregnancy is needed and wanted, and loved, now when the baby is born, the baby is nurtured, breastfed properly, and you can breastfeed your child as long as two years or one year, and by the time you have the next one, the older one will be three years, so the mother is healthy, has time for herself, has time to look after her baby before she gets the next one.

And talk about increasing opportunities of women in the economy, things are hard, and all husbands know that things are hard, When a woman uses family planning, she will have an opportunity; more time to even engage in economic enterprise, even to engage in politics because we want affirmative action for women, so family planning is healthy, and it increases the quality of life of every family.