Family planning gets a Budget Boost at the National Level

Historically in Nigeria, FP in Nigeria has been driven and funded totally by donors. In 2011, the government for the first time budgeted the equivalent of three million USD ($3million) annually for the period of 2011-2015 for the procurement of FP contraceptives in support for the free FP services in all public health facilities initiated in 2011.

This was given on the background that total estimated cost of procuring contraceptives from 2011 – 2015 was about $50 million. This commitment was followed up with a statement during the London Summit for an increase by $8.35 million for the purchase of RH commodities, set a goal to increase the CPR from 10% to 36% by the year 2018. The status of government releases of these commitment and use of these funds were not established and confirmed.

Consequently, under the Partnership for Advocacy in Child and Family Health (PACFaH)project, AAFP had the mandate for national level advocacy to call on the federal government to redeem these national and international commitments to FP and as well increase funding for FP.

This it  successfully did by leveraging on its convening power to organize a 4th Nigeria Family Planning Conference, which brought together nearly 1,000 stakeholders across government (Federal and State, Legislative and Executive), development partners, donors, students, the media, the private sector, and even organized groups of young people, to review the journey so far for family planning in Nigeria. This convening was strongly supported by the PACFaH project.

A key output for AAFP across these interventions, has been the development of Key recommendations from each of the three Dialogues held. These recommendations are also being used to engage with the relevant departments in the Federal Ministry of Health towards a core outcome of new or improved policies for family planning programming. The efforts of the project have also seen to receipt of funds by Ministry of health for capital expenditures and allocation of funds for procurement of family planning commodities, which failed to happen in the 2015 budget year.

AAFP significant success in improving the funding at National level, the $3m USD committed has been redeemed up to 2013, that for 2014 is contained in the 2016 budget and the hon minster of health given a firm commitment that the fund will be released as one lump sum and with an additional one million US dollars commitment to the $3m USD henceforth. Information obtained on the 2017 budget shows that FP budget within the Family health department received the highest budget.