National FP Conference calls for Government, CBO, MPs strong partnership

Dar es Salaam, October 12, 2013

A three day National Family Planning Conference held at Mlimani City Conference Hall ended by the participants committed to forge ahead to ensure voluntary  family planning information, services and supplies are accessible toward meeting the unmet need of 25% in Tanzania.

The declaration of commitment was signed by almost all 540 local and international participants who gathered in Dar es Salaam attending the conference which carried a now famous slogan among them; ‘Local Solutions to Local Problems’.

Speaking at the closing session of the conference, the Conference Media Sub Committee Chair, Halima Shariff said that the participants had took time to discuss and reflect on the issues raised at the conference and other experiences that they had; and  agreed to solicit support to this cause.

“We jointly commit to achieve universal access to quality FP in Tanzania by 2020 and beyond, and pledge to intensely and accelerate efforts at national, regional, district and community levels to implement strategic interventions in the NFPCIP,” she said.

Earlier, during the various sessions held on the day three, the last day of the conference, Professor Issa Ziddy from the State University of Zanzibar denounced the common notion among many that the Islamic faith disagree modern FP programmes.

The Prof. who talked about Family Planning and Islamic Perception, said the importance of religious beliefs to human beings is to differentiate them from animals by giving a chance to use their common senses to deal with the environment.

The conference also had time to hear from two women who had been practicing FP for years now. They aired their views and experiences on the advantages of family planning and the freedom they enjoyed in participating in the day to day work.

Jean Berchmans Niyibizi presented the paper titled; ‘m4RH (mobile for Reproductive Health) Rwanda: Reaching Young People with Critical Sexual and Reproductive Health Information via Mobile Phone’, saying it is easier to disseminate sexual knowledge through mobile phone than face to face especially for parents.

One of the message cited in thus paper read: “Puberty is when girls and boys bodies change. They grow bigger and taller, their genitals mature, and hair starts growing in new places. This usually happens between ages 8-13 in girls and 10-15 in boys. Sometimes it happens earlier or later, and lasts about 2-5 years.”

One of the male parents who attended a workshop in Kigali was quoted as saying: “This program is for youth but it could also help parents to approach their children and talk about reproductive health which is not easy according to our culture, if they can access these kinds of information via SMS, could help a lot.”

Other papers discussed on the last day were ‘Access to mass media and rejection of gender inequitable norms among unmarried youth in Dar es Salaam’ (Dr. Datius K. Rweyemamu, University of Dar es Salaam), ‘Partnering with young men for Increasing Access to SRH including FP services’ (Simon Ivo Mbele, Director of Programmes, UMATI) and ‘Family Planning Budget Analysis in eight Districts in Mainland Tanzania’ from Marie Stopes, Tanzania.

Conference Media Sub-Committee:

Contact:
Chair
Halima Shariff
+255 788249091