.............PLAN YOUR FAMILY, LIVE A HEALTHY LIFE

By Irene Nabusoba

THE International Family Planning Conference ended today (November 18th) at the Speke Resort and Country Lodge, Munyonyo. However, sceptics have been fast to say it may be one of those rhetoric forums that seem to be characterising Uganda.

Others, like Dr Peter Ibembe, the national programme coordinator with Reproductive Health Uganda (RHU) are hopeful that family planning will take centre-stage at a global meeting of experts.’

Ibembe says the conference, which aims at achieving universal access for family planning could not be more timely.

“The theme Research and Best Practices, puts it into perspective,” Ibembe says. “Uganda has not been selected because of a good family planning record. It has been selected because it has come up to front family planning as the best bargain and what we need to do right now is learn from what other countries have done to manage their populations sustainably,” he adds.

Ibembe says lack of funding for family planning continues to stall development in poor countries like Uganda.

“We need sh24b every year to ably provide quality reproductive health services like family planning but government only avails sh1b,” he explains. “The Abuja declaration, to which Uganda is a signatory, calls for 15% contribution of national budgets to health. But we are still staggering at below 10% (about 8.2%).”

This progress will be measured by the International Planned Federation Africa Regional office (IPPFAR) in their presentation: “Sharing the Results of the Study of the Implementation of the Maputo Plan of Action (MPOA) in Africa - Level of the Implementation of MPOA.”

Only 10% of women in the least economically developed nations are using contraception, contributing to unsustainable population growth, which leads to further poverty, unrest and health inequality. In Uganda, only 24% of women in reproductive age are using modern contraception while 41% want to delay or stop their births but cannot access family planning.

Emily Katarikawe (r) of the Uganda Health Marketing Group and

Mariettah Nabukalu at the launch of NewFem, a contraceptive pill

Dr. Betty Kyadondo, the head of the family health department at the Population Secretariat, says this unmet need for family planning has led to high fertility and population growth rates.

“These population indicators may worsen because 50% of our population comprises young people with more demanding reproductive health needs that call for family planning,” she says.

“Teen pregnancies may double, so will complications arising from abortion as they get rid of unwanted and mistimed pregnancies. Family planning is the answer and this conference will help us get focused as a country,” she notes.

Kyadondo says lessons learnt will build momentum for universal access to family planning.“This all culminates into reduction of mothers dying out of pregnancy-related causes like abortion, very close and so many births,” she says.

The conference, organised by the Bill and Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Makerere University’s School of Public Health, and the Implementing Best Practices Initiative will not only end at ‘sharing research and best practices’ but will also focus on knowledge-to-action.

Dr Soul Onyango, from the Uganda AIDS Commission, echoes concerns that the unmet need for family planning can undermine the achievement of all Millennium Development Goals and compromise global efforts towards human development.

He adds that in countries where HIV/Aids is rife, lack of contraception undermines efforts in preventing new infections and access to ARVs.

“Family planning is a key component in our prevention strategy because there will not be mother to child infections in the presence of conception,” he says. “But we do not have a deliberate policy on family planning for the people living with HIV AIDS as a special group because their entry point is normally care,” he says.

“All countries that have developed and become rich have mastered the benefits of family planning,” Ibembe explains. “I expect to hear about increased investment in family planning. I also hope to see a unified front in provision of family planning services,” he says.

Above all, Ibembe expects some independence from donor aid for family planning.

“That is why we as RHU even organised a breakfast dialogue with the Ministry of Health officials and parliamentarians to forge a unified front in advocating for increased financing from the Government. Donors can only do so much, but we need to guarantee our own family planning security,” he says.