The Health Policy Project ended in 2016. Work continued under Health Policy Plus (HP+) until 2022.
NEWS & VIEWS
December 11, 2014
ABUJA, Nigeria—Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Health launched the Nigeria Family Planning Blueprint (Scale-Up Plan), 2014–2018 at the Third Family Planning Conference, held in Abuja from November 26– 28, 2014.
The goal of the Blueprint is to raise the contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) among married women from 15 percent to 36 percent, thereby averting 1.6 million unintended pregnancies, as well as 400,000 infant and 700,000 child deaths, by the year 2018. The total cost of the Blueprint from 2013–2018 is US$603 million.
The Third Family Planning Conference provided a platform for dialog and understanding among key stakeholders on the status of family planning (FP) in relation to the attainment of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Nigeria. It also supported the repositioning of family planning in Nigeria in the context of sustainable national development and security, highlighted the strong link between family planning and improvements to maternal and child health and overall quality of life, and advocated for increased funding commitments for family planning and a rights-based approach to reproductive health. The National Long Acting Reversible Contraceptive (LARC) Strategy and the Global Programme to Enhance Reproductive Health Commodity Security (GPRHCS) Survey Report were also launched at the conference.
Dr. Ejike Oji, the chairman of the Association for the Advancement of Family Planning (AAFP) and chairman of the Conference Planning Committee, stated, “This week, we are gathered to renew and reaffirm our commitments to millions of women. As the draft proposal for the post-2015 sustainable development goals will be on the table soon for negotiation among national governments, we must use this opportunity to reiterate our calls . . . We must secure commitment from governments to advance family planning and give women control over their fertility.”
The Nigeria Family Planning Blueprint (Scale-Up Plan), 2014–2018 includes strategies on service delivery, supplies and commodities, demand generation and behavior change communications, regulation and policy, and financing. It includes the following seven strategic priorities:
- “FP demand generation and behaviour change communication: To strengthen demand for FP services by developing targeted, tailored, and accurate information and delivering it through accessible communication channels to all key segments of the population”
- “FP financing: To set up standard budget lines in federal, state, and Local Government Area (LGA) budgets to cover FP services, commodities, consumables, and distribution all the way to the service delivery points”
- “Staff and training: To build capacity of providers and training institutions and support the health system in delivering high-quality FP services”
- “Private sector delivery channels: To increase coverage and access to high-quality integrated FP services and commodities through the private sector, including faith-based organisations, private hospitals/clinics, and pharmacies and proprietary patent medicine vendors (PPMVs) as appropriate for some methods”
- “FP coverage in the primary health care (PHC) system: To improve access to high-quality integrated FP services by the PHC system, including the provision of counselling and delivery of all methods except sterilisation”
- “Forecasting and distribution logistics: To strengthen the federal, state, and LGA FP structures to better coordinate and monitor all supply chain activities to deliver commodities and consumables promptly and to efficiently use innovative technologies (e.g., health platforms)”
- “Fact-based decision making and performance management: To improve FP knowledge and performance management (e.g., research, data collection, collation, analysis, feedback, and use) at all levels”
Professor C.O. Onyebuchi Chukwu, the honourable minister of health, signed the Blueprint, writing, “I call on all current and prospective stakeholders to adopt the Blueprint as the reference document in the planning and implementation of all programmes or interventions intended to contribute to increased access to FP services in the country—as doing otherwise will greatly undermine the implementation process and the expected outcomes. It is my sincere belief that there will be broad collaboration among stakeholders as we look towards fast-tracking the process of accomplishing the set goal and objectives of the Blueprint while at the same time avoiding duplication, conflicts of interest, and the waste of scarce resources.”
Futures Group—working with other consultants funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF)—supported the Federal Ministry of Health through the Health Policy Project (HPP) and the BMGF to define the priorities, activities, and associated costs required to reach Nigeria’s FP objectives and to launch the Nigeria Family Planning Blueprint at the conference.
Download the Nigeria Family Planning Blueprint (Scale-Up Plan) and learn more about HPP’s work to support countries in attaining their ambitious Family Planning 2020 commitments here: http://www.healthpolicyproject.com/index.cfm?ID=topics-FP2020.
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