More funding needed for family planning services - MOH
Jul 24, 2014
Ministry of health has called for a need to increase funding towards family planning services which currently stands at just 9 percent of its budget
By Violet Nabatanzi & Asege Godiver
The ministry of health has called for a need to increase funding towards family planning services which currently stands at just 9 percent of its budget.
“With our population estimated at 35 million people we require more funding for reproductive health services,” the assistant commissioner reproductive health, Dr. Anthony Mbonye, disclosed while announcing the first national family planning conference due to take place on the 28 and 30 of this month.
The conference under the theme “Accelerating social and economic transformation through universal access to voluntary family planning,” will be opened by President Museveni.
Commissioner health services Anthony Mbonye and Principal medical officer in charge of family planning Dr. Zainab Akol addressing a press conference regarding the forth coming Family Planning conference in Kampala.PHOTO/Wilfred Sanya
The recent data show that Uganda is one of the countries with the fastest population growth rate at 3.2% per year.
Most of the Ugandan population is youth whose fertility has also been said to be very high.
As a result of the high fertility, the country’s youth population between 10 to 24 which stands at 12.3 million is projected to balloon to 29.5 million in less than 40 years.
Mbonye said, “Due to inadequate staffing and funding towards family planning, we face a number of challenges in hard to reach areas compared to urban areas,”
According to the research from the US Population Reference Bureau, only 26% of Ugandan married women aged 15-49 used modern contraceptive methods and the total number that is using contraception including the modern methods are 30%.
The assistant commissioner health services, Dr. Tusingwire Collins, said government is mentoring health workers at all health facilities how to offer long-term methods of family planning.
The conference is a follow up of the 2013 family planning stakeholders meeting which revamped family planning interventions in Uganda and boosted the implementation of the president’s commitment at the family planning London summit 2012.
“Government has already recruited health workers country wide, to improve the availability of family planning services,” Tusingwire said.
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