By Iliya Kure
Rwandan Prime Minister Édouard Ngirente has called for continued investment in family planning around the world, emphasising the far-reaching benefits of such investment to countries, especially those in Africa.
The Prime Minister was speaking Monday at the opening of the International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP) holding in Kigali, Rwanda.
Noting that family planning was one of the cost-effective ways of improving the wellbeing of people, the prime minister said, it was time for Africa to harness the potentials of its teeming youth population for meaningful development.
“The African continent is very youthful [and] the biggest challenges facing African leaders today is how to harness our youthful population into agents of sustainable development. Investment in young people and in human capital, in general, can enable us to harness a demographic dividend across our continents,” he said.
Also speaking, Rwandan Minister of Health, Dr. Diane Gashumba, said, his country was committed to ensuring more women are provided access to family planning services through deliberate and targeted programme.
“Rwanda is committed to improving awareness and increasing demand for family planning, expanding the range of contraceptive methods available, adding long-acting and reversible options, and ensuring the availability of family planning to 14,841 Rwanda administrative villages by the 45,000 community health workers in service,” he said.
Between 2014-2015, 48% of all married women in Rwanda are using modern contraception, says an ICFP statement.
Many of the speakers praised Rwanda for its commitment to improving health and access to family planning services, which served as an inspiration and example for other countries.
Since Monday, more than 3,700 global policymakers, researchers, young people, faith leaders and family planning advocates from around the world have started discussions in Kigali, Rwanda at the 2018 ICFP themed “Investing for a Lifetime of Returns.”
The ICFP which holds biennially since 2009 provides platform for participants including researchers, policymakers and advocates to share knowledge, celebrate successes and identify strategies toward helping additional 120 million women to access voluntary, quality family planning services by 2020.
A report released Monday reveals that since 2012, 46 million more women and girls who want to avoid or delay pregnancies have started using modern family planning methods in the world’s 69 poorest countries.
The figure represents an increase of about 30% greater than the historic trend, bringing the total number of women and girls with access to modern contraceptives to 317 million in the regions.
“As of July 2018, the number of women and girls using a modern contraception was the highest in history,” said Dr. Natalia Kanem, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund.
“It’s my biggest worry that we still have a long way to go to bring lifesaving modern contraceptives to every woman and girl [who wants to prevent pregnancy] no matter where she is or who she is, so it’s time to pick up the pace.”
The FP2020 Annual Report has for the first time includes information on domestic government spending on family planning in 31 countries; while some spent less than US$50,000 per year, others spent more than US$200 million annually.
“If we’re going to keep our promise [to women and girls], we have to think differently, go beyond linear thinking and be disruptive,” emphasized Dr. Christopher Elias, President of the Global Development Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “[This is essential to] bend the curve and get ourselves on track for universal access by 2030.”
