The Ondo State Government has expressed its commitment towards increase the budget allocation to finance family planning and provide family planning commodities to women between the child-bearing age.
The State Commissioner for Health, Dr Banji Ajaka, disclosed this during the Society for Family Health (SFH) Nigeria dissemination findings on its intervention in Delivery Innovation in Self-Care (DISC) to the health sector of Ondo State.
Ajaka said this will take off across the 18 local government areas of the state as part of its recommendations in the subsequent budget in the state.
Ajaka, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Dr Adeniran Ikuomola appreciated the Society for Family Health for their contribution towards the health indices of the state.
He noted that the state, the DISC project has expanded access to contraception and empowered women and families to make informed choices about their reproductive health, thereby fostering a brighter, healthier future for our communities.
He said; “the state government is doing everything possible to ensure the success of the health sector and this is part of the intervention in the health sector that will bring meaningful development into the state because when the people are healthy, especially the women and the children, the society will be able to be at peace.
“The state government will do everything to ensure the success of this project, the dissemination of the report of the DISC project will encourage us to adopt it in the state because of the usefulness and positive effects that is going to have on our family planning services in the state.
“The commodities will be made available in the state, and we expect maximum cooperation from the partners in supporting us to succeed too. The government will do everything possible to make all of us comfortable within the system.
“The Ondo state Ministry of Health have the personnel and we will continue to develop their capacity so that they will be able to provide the service.”
The Social and Behavioral Change Coordinator for Society for Family Health, Mr Titus Micheal, disclosed that the Delivery Innovation in Selfcare (DISC) is a five-year sexual and reproductive health programme implemented by Population Service International and the Society for Family Health, Nigeria.
According to him, the project supports women to assume greater power and have control over their sexual and reproductive health through the use of contraceptive self-care methods like DMPA-SC Self-Inject.
Micheal said; “also, this project is looking towards ensuring that we have an upscale in self-care in the country. The DISC project was implemented in 5 LGAs of the 18 Local Government Areas of the state namely Ile-Oluji, Akure South, Owo, Ondo West and Akure North.
“The project commenced in Ondo State in December 2022 and terminated in the first quarter of 2024 and it was able to reach about 44,672 women in the 18 local government areas and about 28, 708 were referred for family planning.
“The programme has trained 45 facilities, 72 providers of service delivery, 18 M&E officers on Family Planning Data reporting and 20 community mobilizers.
“The vision of the Federal Ministry of Health is to ensure that this commodities is free of charge in public health facilities, even the commodities can seen in some private health facilities in the country.
“The vision of family planning possession in the country is to ensure that women have in basket of choices, there are so many methods of family planning.
“The self-care one, the one you can inject by yourself is very easy to take, and in the last twenty-two months of our partnering with the state government, we have seen that the number of those that are taking this method is increasing.”
He, therefore, appreciated the state government for providing the enabling environment for the project to succeed in the state.
Speaking on their activities in the state, the state Family Planning Coordinator in Ondo State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Mrs Opeyemi Agunbiade, said there has been about 600 per cent growth in self-injection rate in Ondo State.
She disclosed that over 60 of every 100 women who opt for DMPA-SC as their method of choice are self-injecting successfully under the supervision of their health providers or at home.
Agunbiade explained further that DMPA- SC uptake grew by 60 per cent from 750 visits in July 2022 to 1,232 visits in January 2024 and self-injection rate also grew from 8 per cent to over 60 per cent in Q4. 2023.
ALSO READ THESE TOP STORIES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE