The Albino Foundation Public Notice
By Isah Danjuma Oboni
To ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health services in the country, the Nigerian government has launched a national guideline on self-care. The minister said the new guidelines will reduce pressure on health facilities’ abilities to deliver quality care.
The guideline was launched on Thursday alongside the Family Planning 2030 documents and several other policy documents adopted by the country in 2020.
Speaking at the launch, the minister of health, Osagie Ehanire, said the self-care initiative is necessary due to the rapid increase in the country’s population.
Mr Ehanire said the new guidelines will provide ways to reduce pressure on health facilities to deliver quality care.
He said communities and people are supported and introduced to self-care to reduce the burden of care for health workers.
He explained that the documents will provide direction on the roles and responsibilities of the federal, state and local government areas (LGAs) as well as the private sector in creating an enabling environment for the provision of self-care services in the country.
Family planning 2030
Meanwhile, Mr Ehanire said the Family Planning (FP) 2030 commitment and other documents demonstrate Nigeria’s efforts towards increasing access to quality health services.
He said although the country has made some improvements in FP services, there still exists a huge gap of unmet need for contraceptives.
He said the government is committed to bridging the gaps.
He said, “We are aggressively stepping up action and efforts, particularly at the sub-national levels to traject the trend in the right direction and bridge the gaps.
“Efforts are ongoing to leverage additional domestic resources and harness the potentials existing within our large but youthful population through concerted and coordinated efforts of multi-sectoral players in the areas of health, women affairs, education and gainful employment, including humanitarian crisis as the insecurity has impacted negatively on the lives of girls and adolescents.”
The director, department of family health, federal ministry of health, Salma Kolo, said the overall goal of the new guidelines is to improve the health and wellbeing of women, girls and adolescents
Ms Kolo said the main focus is on sexual reproductive, maternal and new born health and also adolescent health.
She lamented the high rates of deaths recorded amongst women and children in the country.
“In a year, we record more than a million children under five that die from preventable causes, and then we have a huge number of women dying every year from problems related to pregnancy and delivery.
“So the only way to stop this is to ensure standard, skilled human resources at the facilities to deliver the services,” she said.
She noted that family planning is a game changer and a life saver for the society.
ⓘ
“We are not saying women should not have children but at least they should space their children, minimum of two years and even more.
“This will reduce the mortality of children and also the mothers will regain their health,” she said.
Welcome development
Speaking at the launch, the country coordinator of the Access Collaborative Project of PATH/JSI, Adewole Adefalu, said self-care empowers individuals and communities to take decisions about their health by themselves and reduce the burden of influx of patients in health facilities.
“This is yet another milestone for us to see self-care launched and witnessed by various stakeholders, especially with state stakeholders who will be the implementers of the guideline.
“As long as there is political will and with the availability of self-care products like the Depot Medroxyprogesterone Acetate Subcutaneous (DMPA-SC), malaria and HIV self-test kits as well as pregnancy self-testing kits, we have seen people begin to take ownership, positioning them to enjoy the benefit of self-awareness,” he said.
In her remarks, the national coordinator of White Ribbon Alliance Nigeria, Christy Asala, explained that the private sector engagement strategy creates the template for improving access through a total market for family planning.
Ms Asala said the need for self-care manifested more during the COVID-19 lockdowns.
“We are excited that the government has taken this laudable step to plan on how to engage this sector,” she said.
