Dr. Bilal opens Dar National Family Planning Conference

Dar es Salaam October 10, 2013
Tanzanian Government has promised to increase family planning (FP) funds from domestic sources to curb or reduce its dependency on donors for such a vital programme.

The commitment was made in Dar es Salaam by the Vice President (VP), Dr. Ghalib Mohamed Bilal, opening the first ever three day National Family Planning Conference that attracted more than 500 participants from every corner of the country, along with foreign experts.

Dr. Bilal said the funds would be raised through its central and local governments. He also re-launched the Green Star campaign. He said the raised fund would help the country to have sustainable family planning services.

We also encourage availability of enough contraceptives and on time, as well as fighting against wrong beliefs on the modern family planning methods,” said the Vice President.

The VP also insisted on male participation, availability of education and information of best family planning services among the community, especially to youths.

Currently, the contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) in developed countries is 72. 4 per cent, while in Tanzania stands at 27 per cent.

During the last year’s London Family Planning Summit, Tanzania committed to increase CPR percentage so as to assist the global target of reaching 120 million women by 2020.

At the summit, Tanzania committed to increase modern family planning methods users from the present 2.1million women to 4.2 by 2015. To reach that target, extra efforts are needed, hence, I call up the relevant ministries as well all development stakeholders to strengthen solidarity,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Minister for Health and Social Welfare, Dr. Hussein Mwinyi, said reproductive and child health condition in Africa is unsatisfactory as the statistics show that about 454 out of 100,000 live births die every year.

Thus, he added, effective use of family planning would reduce maternal deaths between 20 to 35 per cent, and 10 to 12 percent of infants and under -five deaths.

It is because family planning enables a woman to avoid frequent as well as unintended pregnancies, hence, to escape regular and unsafe abortions,” said Dr. Mwinyi.

It is known that families which follow family planning methods are healthy and in good position to fight poverty.

The modern family planning methods, especially proper use of condoms, prevent HIV transmission as well as cervical cancer, as HIV positive mothers will have low possibility of getting unintended pregnancies, hence, reducing children who might be born with HIV infections.

The Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MOHSW) developed the National Family Planning Costed Implementation Program (NFPCIP) based on to increase the contraceptive prevalence rate to 60 percent by the year 2015.

The NFPCIP is also guided by and links with the Health Sector Strategic Plan III (HSSPIII), the Human Resources for Health Strategy Plan (HRHSP) and the Primary Health Service Development Programme (PHSDP).

Funds required to implement NFPCIP activities will build on many investments called from HSSPIII, PHSDP and HRHSP strategies by ensuring that essential resources for an effective family planning program are identified and that the activities are integrated and implemented within and throughout the overall health system.

The minister thanked USAID, DFID, UNFPA, CDC, UNICEF, WHO, Aus Aid, Irish Aid, DANIDA, CIDA, SDC, UNAIDS, WB, UNDP, JICA, NORAD and GIZ which are health stakeholders for their cooperation as well as for expertise counseling.

For the Non-Governmental institutions, he gave his gratitude to FHI360, Engender health, JHU-CCP, Marie Stopes, PSI, Pathfinder, Jhpiego, Egpaf, PATH, Futures Groups, ICAP, T-March, HDT,  JSI, DSW, MDH, AMREF and CARE, UMATI and APHTA.

The three day Tanzania National Planning Conference sponsored by USAID and UNFPA, will reach its climax this Friday.

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