PMA2020: Olaolorun recommends more training for Nigerian family planning care providers

NaijaAgroNet:

The co-Principal Investigator for the Performance Monitoring and Accountability 2020, Dr. Funmi OlaOlorun has recommend more training support for the private health care providers in the provision of family planning in Nigeria, and particularly in Lagos, the commercial nerve centre of the country, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Speaking to  NaijaAgroNet during a media parley on the fourth round survey of Performance, Monitoring and Accountability 2017 in Lagos, Dr. Olaolorun said that support for more training for private healthcare providers will improve the provision of injectables, implants among others for the purpose of effective family planning for the country.

According to her, support increases supply of Long Acting Methods (LAM), greater choice and avails provides training and retraining opportunities in order to be up-standing to their call of duty.

Dr. OlaOlorun who doubles as a Senior Lecturer and Honorary Consultant at College of Medicine, University of Ibadan - ‎College of Medicine, University of Ibadan disclosed that the latest survey under PMA2020, witnessed in Lagos, more women obtaining method of choice and would return to providers in the nearest future, with likelihood of referring a friend.

She stressed that the survey noted increase in the use of long acting methods, especially implants, just as stockouts persist, especially in the private hospitals and clinics.

The PMA2017 cum Lagos-round four survey, she noted was conducted by the Centre for Research, Evaluation Resources and Development (CRERD) and Bayero University Kano (BUK).

The project, she said, was collected data from Anambra, Kaduna, Kano, Lagos, Nasarawa, Rivers and Taraba States.

With support from the Federal Ministry of Health, National Population Commission, National Bureau of Statistics, Lagos State Ministry of Health , Bill & Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health (Johns Hopkins University) and was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in addition to partnership with Pathfinder International.

The purpose of the survey, Dr. Olaolorun said, was to monitor family planning progress with a set of core indicators and was conducted between April and May this year.

Remmy Nweke/ED, Ops
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Women Deserve Care, Not Abuse

Commentary@NaijaAgroNet:

The life of an average woman elicits some kind of sympathy from me. I'm sorry for using the word "sympathy" which sounds rather derogatory.

Every woman lives her life in some forms of natural pains. Every maltreatment meted on her in the society only compounds these pains.

After birth, the girl child undergoes genital mutilation (now being prohibited in the society) At school age, she is considered to "belong to the kitchen and the other room." She is denied western education which automatically goes to her sibling - the boy.

At puberty, she experiences pains as her body grows into adulthood. She groans at every menstrual period, and the boy even makes jest of her.

Many girls who are denied education are soon handed over to waiting suitors in marriage. The girl child begins her journey into life of possible misery. She may not have a voice in family's decision, she gives birth as her husband desires, lives her life in abject poverty and in avoidable sickness. Her lifespan is cut short. She dies too soon and leaves behind children who may be without a good future.

For girls who are lucky to be in school, they eventually get married and have their share in the pains.

The woman becomes pregnant and falls sick. She carries her fetus for nine months and is delivered of her baby in great pains. Let me explain this further. The day I began to respect my wife and every woman the more was the day my baby was born. I was there in the labour room. I used my position as President of Association of Nigeria Health Journalists to plead with doctors and nurses that attended to her to see her in the room twice)

Only hell fire could produce more agonizing experience. And, I concluded, as I believe till date, and till I will die, that no man can face or endure pain like a woman.

The woman gives birth to her baby, she nurses the baby for two years of mostly sleepless nights. She doesn't sleep until the baby sleeps. She endures, even when there is nothing to eat, nor money to spend. Instead of nagging over these, she becomes prayer warrior and goes into fasting, even when breastfeeding!

There is one more important thing I want to say. Imagine a woman, she attends to her children in the house, she does most part or all the house chores, she works to support the home expenditures. After all the day's stress, the husband will still sleep with her at night. He will expect that he must satisfy himself, with all the stress the woman has gone through in the day.

What more will I say? I remember the time my was sick when he was bringing out teeth, my wife (and my sister) came out of the house at 1:00am to look for the baby's medication far away from the house. That is typical of an average woman.

Can you remember the roles women play whenever anyone is sick in the house or workplace?

Our society gives glory of what happens in families to men and the opposite goes to women.

Despite all these, imagine how our women endure marriage. Many men are not even ready to settle down with any woman. Some see women as necessary evil. Consequently, most ladies are out there begging God to give them a home. I even heard someone yesterday tell his wife whom he has refused to feed with her children to leave his house. He told the wife: "There are hundreds of you waiting at the door, praying that you leave so they could come in." Judgment belongs to God, hope you remember?

I have often made this argument that no matter how bad or wicked a woman could be to man, she was probably taught to behave that way by a man. That is, she is wicked because a man had been wicked to her.

I quite understand that some women could be irresponsible, but from my experiences, men are much more guilty in issues which arise from how both men and women deal with each other.

I call on all men to respect and honour the female folks - women and girls. They deserve to be respected and cared for. Remember, we shall all give account of our deeds before God at the end.

*Contributed by Marcus Fatunmole

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Pix: Mrs Aisha Buhari and Mrs. Osinbajo

FAO launches digital one-stop-shop, lauds family farmers

NaijaAgroNet:

The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) Director-General, Jose Graziano da Silva has reiterated that family farmers are crucial allies in the fight against hunger and rural poverty through feeding the community and taking care of the earth, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The Director-General speaking at the launch of a new digital platform that aims to become a "one-stop shop" for information, data and legislation on the sector that produces some 80 per cent of the world's food, NaijaAgroNet gathered, recognized the contributions of family farmers to food security and poverty eradication worldwide.

The new digitized platform would gather information on family farming from all over the world, cutting across public programs, national and regional legislation and academic researches, thus creating an enabling environment for governments to build stronger policies in support of family farmers and farmers’ organisations.

Reiterating this stand, Chief of the Advocacy Unit in FAO's Office for Partnerships, Advocacy and Capacity Development, Francesco Pierri, noted that there was a need to share knowledge on family farming on the different kinds of policies that governments have implemented and the numerous activities of family farmers and their organizations in the field.

“There is a lot of information available on the web, but it's scattered -- we wanted one single access point for all the information out there, for anybody working in this field to use," he said.

The platform NaijaAgroNet learnt, would benefit diverse international entities including governments, family farmers' networks, United Nation agencies, Non Gonvernmental Organisations and research organizations. 

FAO maintained that with governments partnership, through the provision of large portion contents for the platform’s legal database that allows users to browse through a catalogue of family related policies and programmes per country, the UN agency aims at a second phase initiative to also host online policy dialogues after successfully establishing the platform.

Daniel Nsolibe/GEE

 

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