PHSAI advocacy boosts FP funding in Lagos - NaijaAgroNet

NaijaAgroNet: 

The Public Health Sustainable Advocacy Initiative (PHSAI) has declared that its efforts gave boost to the family planning (FP) funding in Lagos State, reports NaijaAgroNet.

PHSAI chairman, Mr. Ayo Adebusoye made this disclosure in his address to mark the 2019 World Contraception Day with the support of Pathfinder International under the theme: FP Funding Advocacy Overview in Lagos State.

According to him, the Lagos State Family Planning (FP) Advocacy Working Group (LAWG) known formally as the Public Health Sustainable Advocacy Initiative (PHSAI) was established in January 2015 with the support of Pathfinder International.

PHSAI, he said, comprises civil society, faith-based organizations, the media, and local government units for budget and reproductive health and family planning.

As said by Adebusoye, between 2015 and 2018, PHSAI efforts is beginning to manifest through series of meetings with the key stakeholders in Lagos State, including policy makers in the health sector, local government executives, community leaders and Reproductive Health and Family Planning Managers among others.

The essence of these meetings, he said, was to identify ways to leverage funds for Family Planning.

As such, he disclosed that presently, some 18 Local Government Areas cum Local Council Development Authorities “are now reported to be funding family planning consumables in 2018.”

In addition, he said that Lagos State budget for family planning doubled “from N86,740,000 ($240,944.44) in 2017 to N177,500,000 ($493,055.56) in 2018.”

In 2017, for instance, he said, the Lagos State Primary Healthcare Board for the first time in history “created a specific budget line for family planning consumables in the sum N50,000,000 ($140,000). The same amount was allocated in the 2018 budget.”

PHSAI’s advocacy intervention, he said, is to improve family planning funding, reiterating the group committed to scaling up the lessons learnt by sharing with the state and local governments throughout Nigeria.





Nenye Dom/Editor




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New IFAD-supported project boosts rural economy, livelihoods

NaijaAgroNet:

A total of 60,000 Angolan rural households in Cuanza Sul and Huila provinces will benefit from a financial agreement, signed today between the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and Angola, that will generate revenue and boost food and nutrition security of poorer households. The project will increase smallholder agriculture productivity, production and marketing for selected crops and will place a special focus on women and young people.

The financing agreement for the Smallholder Agriculture Development and Commercialization Project in Cuanza Sul and Huila Provinces (SADCP-CH) was signed in Rome by Gilbert F. Houngbo, President of IFAD, and Florêncio Mariano da Conceição de Almeida, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Angola to IFAD.

The total cost of the project is US$38.2 million, including a $28.8 million loan from IFAD. The project will be cofinanced by the Government of Angola ($8.2 million) and by the beneficiaries themselves ($1.1 million).

During Angola’s 26-year civil war, the agriculture sector was devastated and productivity plummeted. Due to instability, many smallholder farmers reverted to subsistence farming to feed their families. What minimal surplus they had, they sold in local markets. SADCP-CH will help subsistence farmers increase agricultural production and productivity through improved agricultural practices and technologies. Farmer field schools will strengthen the skills of smallholders and their organizations.

With most agriculture in the region dependent on rainfall, SADCP-CH will also enhance access to water and more efficient water use. It will develop small-scale irrigation systems, focussing on the rehabilitation of existing schemes that cover about 500 hectares in the project area.

Support will be provided to farmers’ organizations to promote climate resilient agriculture for key priority food and horticultural crops, while working to promote investments aimed at reducing post-harvest losses and strengthening market linkages. 

For example, the project will pilot and promote low-cost technologies for storage and processing of perishable products. This will help farmers capitalize on the market, rather than being subject to opportunistic traders that are well aware of product perishability. The expectation is that the increased demand for goods and services in rural areas will spur the creation of non-farm jobs, in particular for the young people.

Since 1991, IFAD has financed six rural development programmes and projects in Angola for a total cost of $139.7 million, with an IFAD investment of $76.0 million directly benefiting 261,600 rural households.

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FADAMA boosts 40,000 farmers in Anambra

NaijaAgroNet:

Over 40,000 farmers have benefited from the FADAMA III intervention in Anambra, just as they have increased saves by 70 per cent, according to the Project Coordinator, Mr. Emmanuel Muofunanya, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) report made available to correspondent, indicates that Mr. Muofunanya in Awka said that the programme also disbursed in excess of N600 million to 870 groups between 2009 and 2013.

The farmers, he said, witnessed an increase in their average income from N45,000 in 2009 to N80,000 in 2013, stressing that a survey conduct by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in the state revealed that the beneficiaries had improved their savings and income by 70 per cent.

“The farmers have done well in Fadama Users Equity Fund, where farmers are encouraged to save 10 per cent of their income to sustain their projects as well as in technology adoption.

Emphasising that the project development objective has been to increase the income and livelihood of beneficiaries and in that regard, the project has done well, insisting that irrigation had remained a serious challenge to achieve more successes in the state.

Isaac Oyimah/GEE/NAN
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