World Contraception Day ’18: Pathfinder laments CPR uptake in Nigeria, says its lowly 10% - NaijaAgroNet

NaijaAgroNet:

The Country Director, Pathfinder International, Dr. Farouk Jega, has said that despite Nigeria’s investment in Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR) for modern methods it's still a lowly 10 per cent, reports NaijaAgroNet.

In his address to Nigerians on this year’s World’s Contraception Day (WCD), he noted that its happening against the backdrop of the latest edition of Goalkeepers, a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation annual publication meant to track progress towards achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

He quoted the publication as drawing attention to the stark reality that unless something is done urgently, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo will be house to 40 per cent of the world’s poorest people by 2050.

“Despite the significant investments made in the last decade or so, Nigeria’s contraceptive prevalence rate for modern methods is still a lowly 10 per cent,” he declared.

As said by him with a population nearing 200 million, about a quarter of who are young people, Nigeria has a good opportunity of harnessing the so-called demographic dividend by turning the ‘youth bulge’ into a productive segment contributing meaningfully to economic growth and development.

But this demographic dividend can only be achieved if the necessary investments are made in the young population - investments in their education, skills development and health care, including access to full and voluntary family planning.

The National Youth Policy is long overdue for revision to address the reproductive health needs of adolescents and young people in the country. 

Empowering our youthful population is an urgent necessity; failure to make the necessary investments in this restless segment of the population portends serious consequences, some of which may have already started manifesting in increased levels of insecurity and violent crimes across the country.

Improving access to and quality of family planning services, he said, has long been recognized as one of the most cost-effective interventions to address both maternal and child mortality. 

Nigeria recently committed to significantly increase funding for contraceptive commodities at the London FP2020 Summit. Despite this commitment, funding gaps still exist as most states in the country have yet to prioritize family planning, and few have made budgetary provisions for this important service. Stock outs of key commodities are beginning to resurface in many health centers, further compounding an unmet need of women for contraceptive services, which is currently at 21 per cent.

  
Chuks Egbune/ED, Ops

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No safe place left for Nigerian children – UNICEF laments

NaijaAgroNet:

With the unleashing of over 135 child-suicide bombers on Nigeria northeast, and increase across the world, the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) has lamented there is no more safe places left for children, reports NaijaAgroNet.

UNICEF in its latest submission on the state of suffering by Children made available to NaijaAgroNet, UNICEF Director of Emergency Programmes, Manuel Fontaine, said that in northeast Nigeria and Cameroon, Boko Haram has forced at least 135 children to act as suicide bombers, almost five times the number in 2016.

NaijaAgroNet also gathered that millions more children are paying an indirect price for these conflicts, suffering from malnutrition, disease and trauma as basic services – including access to food, water, sanitation and health; as they were denied, damaged or destroyed in the fighting.

Also in the Central African Republic, UNICEF said that after months of renewed fighting, a dramatic increase in violence saw children being killed, raped, abducted and recruited by armed groups.

Over 2017 in the Afghanistan, almost 700 children were killed in the first 9 months of the year, while in the Kasai region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, violence has driven 850,000 children from their homes, while more than 200 health centres and 400 schools were attacked. An estimated 350,000 children have suffered from severe acute malnutrition. 

In Iraq and Syria, UNICEF said, children have reportedly been used as human shields, trapped under siege, targeted by snipers and lived through intense bombardment and violence.

Children in Myanmar, Rohingya region, UNICEF said, suffered and witnessed shocking and widespread violence as they were attacked and driven from their homes in Rakhine state; while children in remote border areas of Kachin, Shan, and Kayin states continued to suffer the consequences of ongoing tensions between the Myanmar Armed Forces and various ethnic armed groups.  

For the South Sudan, NaijaAgroNet reports that conflict has seen to a collapsing economy which led to a famine declaration in parts of the country, more than 19,000 children have been recruited into armed forces and armed groups, and over 2,300 children have been killed or injured since the conflict first erupted in December 2013.

Whereas in Somalia, estimated 1,740 cases of child recruitment were reported in the first 10 months of 2017.

Just as in Yemen, nearly 1,000 days of fighting left at least 5,000 children dead or injured, according to verified data, with actual numbers expected to be much higher. More than 11 million children need humanitarian assistance. Out of 1.8 million children suffering from malnutrition, 385,000 are severely malnourished and at risk of death if not urgently treated.

UNICEF calls on all parties to conflict to abide by their obligations under international law to immediately end violations against children and the targeting of civilian infrastructure, including schools and hospitals. UNICEF also calls on States with influence over parties to conflict to use that influence to protect children.

NaijaAgroNet recalls that across all these countries, UNICEF works with partners to provide the most vulnerable children with health, nutrition, education and child protection services.

Isaac Oyimah/ED, ops

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