The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) on Thursday marked this year’s World Contraception Day’ with a float through some principal streets of Accra to highlight and intensify family planning activities throughout the country.
The float was to also promote awareness of contraceptive methods to enable the youth to make informed choices about their sexual and reproductive health.
It was organised on the theme, “Family Planning, Know the Options, Make your choice” to drum home the benefits associated with the use of contraceptives.
The float was started at the Obra Spot at the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange through to Osu Oxford street and finally ended at the La General hospital.
The UNFPA Country Representative, Niyi Ojuolape said, the theme for the day was appropriate because, Ghahad expanded the family planning method mix to include Depot Medroxyprogesterone Acetate (DMPA)- Subcutaneous (SC) which allowed for self-injection by clients.
According him, his outfit had positioned itself to achieve three transformative goals including reaching zero unmet need for family planning by 2030.
He said, the UNFPA procures about 40 percent of national contraceptive requirements each year and supported capacity building to strengthen the provision of quality family planning services in the country.
“These efforts have complimented government contributions in creating favourable policy environment for family planning, implementation of the Community –based Health Planning Services (CHPS) policy, the task sharing initiative, implementation of Ghana integrated logistics management information system and culminated in increased family planning uptake in Ghana,” Niyi Ojuolape stated.
He indicated that, unmet need for family planning was still high particularly among adolescents due to the myths and misconceptions around the subject.
According to the UNFPA Country Representative, coordination gaps persisted in the distribution of quality and affordable contraceptives to the last mile which created artificial stock outs.
He gave the assurance that the UNFPA would continue to work with government and other stakeholders to build capacity of the health systems to deliver quality family planning services and the strengthening of the national supply chain systems.
“UNFPA is also supporting the training of family planning providers in various FP methods including the new self-inject-DMPA SC, which afford privacy and convenience for the client,” Mr Ojuolape stated.
He expressed the UNFPA’s country’s commitment in collaborating with family planning stakeholders to support government to collectively draw synergies and ensure inclusive programming ‘so that no one was left behind.’
BY ABEDUWAA LUCY APPIAH
