.............FAMILY PLANNING: PROMOTING LONGTERM METHODS

By Halima Shaban

IN Uganda, 22% of all married women want to wait for over two years before having their next child, 28% do not want any more children, yet half of these women are not using any contraception. To help them realise this choice, Erin McGinn, the senior technical adviser on family planning at EngenderHealth says.

EngenderHealth promotes all contraceptive methods but specialises in improving access to long-acting and permanent methods, which include IUDs, implants, female sterilisation and vasectomy.

“These methods remain underutilised often because access is limited to these methods, or women and men are less familiar with them,” she says. EngenderHealth also stresses the importance of engaging men in family planning to enhance their awareness and support for their partners’ reproductive health and at the same time, increase men’s access to and use of family planning services.”

At the International Conference on Family Planning, EngenderHealth presented on the vital contribution that long-acting and permanent methods can have to reducing unmet need in Uganda and other countries, and to expanding family planning options for men and women.

McGinn says EngenderHealth works to improve the health and well-being of people in the poorest communities of the world. “We do this by sharing our expertise in sexual and reproductive health and transforming the quality of health care. We promote gender equity, advocate for sound practices and policies and inspire people to assert their rights to better and healthier lives,” McGinn says