The Nigerian government says it is set towards achieving its goals of decreasing maternal and infant morbidity and mortality rate by ensuring that about 7.3 million women have access to family planning in the country.
The ministry of health plans to do this with the use of a new National Family Planning Communication Campaign, to be launched on Monday September 11,
The Director of Family Health Planning Dr. Abebimpe Adebiyi during a press conference in Abuja said that the campaign would close the contraceptive gap in the country.
Mrs Adebiyi noted that the fear of side effect, norms and belief, misconception among others are the major factors affecting the use of contraceptives in Nigeria.
She also said that most Nigerians do not have the basic knowledge the importance of Family planning.
“Years after the first National Family Planning Campaigns campaign was launched, Nigeria has remained stagnated. The significant Gaps still Persist between knowledge and Contraceptive Use thereby creating marginal Shifts in Unmet Needs for Family Planning in the country”, she said.
Dr. Adebiyi also said that the new campaign with “The Green dot” would serve as the “official marker for Public and Private locations where people can obtain Family Planning services that are Safe, Affordable and Effective in Nigeria.”
The new campaign has a new logo, a green dot. It is a Simple, Easy to describe, Easy to remember and not Illustrative.
he Director Media and Publicity, Ministry of Health, Mrs Boade Akinola, urged the media to address misconception about family planning by educating people on the effects of lack of family planning and to promote empathy and understanding among men.
Mrs. Boade also called on the media to create awareness on other likely effects of lack of family planning like the Socio-economic and health issues, to push the Family Planning issues to the mainstream agenda as well as Promoting Understanding and Empathy among Men.
“The media most often targets reproductive health programming at women or speak about family planning and other health issues at programs that target women. However, evidence shows that the decision on whether or not to adopt family planning is made by the husbands”, she said.
