African MPs discuss family planning

By Eddie Ssejjoba   

     
The state minister for primary healthcare, Sarah Opendi said women should be encouraged to have children by choice and not by chance because they are not factories.

“Women have reproductive and health rights, and are human beings with bodies that get worn out and develop complications if not rested,” she said.
 

Opendi said women need to space children to rest their bodies in order for them to be able to reduce on the negative effects that come with having too many children.

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The Mitooma woman MP, Jovah Kyamateka and state minister for primary healthcare, Sarah Opendi at  Speke Resort Hotel Munyonyo on September 30,2014. PHOTO/ Eddie Ssejjoba

She was Tuesday speaking at Speke Resort Hotel Munyonyo, where she opened a two-day meeting for women parliamentarians, ministers of health and civil society organizations from Ghana, Malawi, Ethiopia and Uganda.

 It was organized by Partners in Population and Development (PPD) African Regional Office and funded by the United States Agency for Development (USAID).
 

The theme of the conference; ‘Joint Accountability for Family Planning (FP) 2020 Commitments’ aims at promoting joint accountability for FP2020 commitments among legislators, ministry of health officials and civil society representatives.
 

trueMinister of state for planning and economic development, Matia Kasaija talks to Dr. Richard Anane from the parliament of Ghana as Leslie Reed, the USAID mission director looks on. Photo by Eddie Ssejjoba

“Low uptake of contraceptives predisposes women to high fertility rates leading to frequent pregnancies that expose them to the risk of maternal and neonatal deaths, while teenage pregnancy also heightens the risk to pregnancy complications including unsafe abortions and death,” Opendi said.
 

She explained that the causes of poor maternal health and newborn health are directly linked to poor care practices, citing high morbidity and mortality of women and children in Uganda.
 

She pointed out that only 30% of women in Uganda access family planning, which she said was not different from other developing countries.
 

The minister however said Uganda had revamped the momentum to promote family planning not just as a health but a development issue.
 

She told the legislators that Uganda had registered a renewed political commitment towards family planning since President Yoweri Museveni made commitments at the London summit in 2012 followed by the International Conference on Family Planning in Ethiopia last year.
 

Three of the president’s commitments, according to Opendi, had been fulfilled including increase of family planning commodities at all health facilities in the country and the country was looking forward to achieving universal access to the services.
 

The minister warned legislators to be aware of the ‘negative forces that do not believe in family planning especially use of contraceptives’.
 

She said there was need for people to have the correct information about family planning services, deal with side effects and increase choice and method mix as a human right.
 

The legislators were asked to as well lobby for more recruitment of technical and medical social workers and financial resources and be able to listen to voices of health workers.
 

She said it was vital to increase on the welfare of health workers so that ‘we can then demand for better quality services from them’.
 

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Margaret Sancho, the USAID Uganda director of HIV/Aids and Health told the MPs that population growth and family planning remain at the top of the United States health and overall development agenda in Uganda.
 

She however said Uganda still had a long way to go, ‘as roughly a third of women wish to space or limit their children, but are not currently using family planning methods’.
 

“Without addressing rapid population growth and increasing access to voluntary family planning, all of Uganda’s development and economic gains remain at risk in the future,” she said.

The PPD director, Dr. Jotham Musinguzi said most member countries had made long strides in supporting family planning since the London Summit of 2012, with many governments now allocating more funds in the national budgets towards provision of services.
 

He asked the legislators to learn from each other the best practices and be able to implement them through their respective parliaments.
 

Most legislators however said most countries still face the challenges of reaching family planning services to rural communities and dealing with negative perceptions.   
 

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The state minister for primary healthcare, Sarah Opendi joins other women parliamentarians from Ghana, Malawi, Ethiopia and Uganda for a group photo at the Speke Resort Hotel on September 30, 2014. PHOTO/ Eddie Ssejjoba

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