PACFaH@Scale sub-grantees at National and State levels continue to play vital roles as stakeholders across the Family Planning (FP) platforms in Kano, Kaduna, Niger and Lagos States.
All the sub-grantees are involved in different coalition and accountability platforms as vital stakeholders in the advocacy for increased FP funding across all levels of government. These platforms include; Family Advocates in Nigeria Initiatives, FHANI, in Kaduna State, Reproductive Health Family Planning Technical Working Group, RH/FP TWG in Kano, Child Spacing Advocacy Working Group, CAWG in Niger State, and Lagos State Health Development Partners Forum, HDPF in Lagos State.
Through these platforms, our sub-grantees continue to hold governments, at various states, to account for their commitments to family planning funding and policy implementation and advocacy through the media and community gatekeepers. The contributions of the sub grantees disaggregated by states is further analysed below:
The Health Advocate reports that the Kaduna groups, Global Initiative for Women and Children,(GIWAC) and the Planned Parenthood Federation of Nigeria, (PPFN) under the Family Health Advocates in Nigeria Initiative (FHANI), attended 1 breakfast meeting with the Kaduna State House of Assembly, KSHA committees on Health, Appropriation, Women Affairs and Public Accounts with other stakeholders held on the 26th of August 2019.
They also advocated for cash releases to support RI activities in the state in recent of low RI coverage indices, identified funding challenges in the KDSG 2019 budget that hindered effective implementation of FP programs resulting in stock out of FP commodities and unavailability of services and secured the commitment of the Kaduna State House of Assembly on the need to increase the FP funding from N147.6 million to N368.2 million. This strengthens the position of the CSOs coalition as FP frontier champion for increased funds allocation and timely release of FP funds.
These groups also identified the challenges that negatively affect access to FP services and the need to comprehensively address them e.g. Poverty, illiteracy and access to FP services
The PAS-CSOs also emphasized on the need for frequent meetings with KDSHA as important stakeholders in the advocacy for increased funding FP.
In Kano State, the Women In Media, WIM, under the Reproductive Health/ Family Planning Technical Working Group (RH/FP TWG attended one RH/FP TWG meeting on 17th June 2019 held in the state as members of the RH/FP TWG, WIM-PAS was invited to witness the distribution of FP commodities in 10 clusters.
In Niger State, PAS 3 sub grantees, Centre for Communication and Reproductive Health Services (CCRHS), Federation of Muslim Women’s Association in Health (FOWMAN), National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives (NANNM), and the Socio-economic Research and Development Centre (SERDEC), under the Child Spacing Advocacy Working Group (CAWG), secured membership and participation of the CSOs on the FP platform at the state level, with the 1st meeting slated for the last week of September 2019 to explore areas of collaboration and partnership.
In Lagos State, Child Health Advocacy Initiative, (CHAI), under the Lagos State Health Development Partners Forum (HDPF), CHAI held a meeting with the State Coordinator for Reproductive Health and Family Planning services, Dr. Victoria Onoema on 13th September 2019 to register the familiarize her with the coalition and ensure they get invites for meetings, inclusion in sub-committees and other proceedings as FP stakeholders in the state.
The Health Advocates reports that the involvement of CSOs is vital to the expansion and achievement of increased CPR across all tiers of government, as they act as strategic partners involved in advocacy and public accountability with the media and other stakeholders.
All the PAS sub-grantees are involved in different coalitions and accountability platforms as vital stakeholders in the advocacy for increased FP funding across all levels of government as shown above. In addition to health benefits of FP, it also offers other social and economic benefits like reduction of poverty and accelerate socioeconomic development, promotion of gender equality, reduce incidence of HIV and other STIs, and promote environmental protection.
