The federal government has urged state governments to join it in filling the 32-million dollar funding gap for the procurement of Family Planning (FP) commodities in 2024 to help meet the FP 2030 target.

The coordinating minister of health and social welfare, Prof. Ali Pate, made the appeal on Tuesday in Abuja during the FCT dissemination of national guidelines on state-funded procurement of FP commodities.

Represented by the head, reproductive health division, Lawrence Anyanwu, the minister said that the projected amount needed to procure commodities for FP in 2024 stood at 51 million dollars.

According to him, there is an assurance level commitment by partners for 19 million dollars already, with some orders for some commodities already placed, leaving a gap of 32 million dollars to be filled.

He added that “the responsibility to do this primarily lies with the Federal Government, the 36 state governments and the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA).

“So, the exercise we have done here today is to sensitise FCT authorities on the need to appropriate funds in the 2024 Appropriation Bill for FP, in line with the recently approved provision by the National Council on Health (NCH) for the federal and state governments to establish and fund budget line for FP.

“So, if every state provides some money in addition to what the Federal Government is providing, we should be able to fully address this 32 million dollars funding.

“It is important for every state to implement this NCH-approved mandatory establishment and funding of budget line for FP.”

Mr Pate explained that the guideline was developed as a major intervention to secure the contributions of governments of the 36 states and the FCT toward realising the objective of ensuring uninterrupted availability of FP commodities at the service delivery points.

He added that it would improve the inclusive and holistic implementation of the National Family Planning Programme, especially in solving the commodity availability challenge.

The minister said, “The federal Government has set the tone with some provisions made in the 2024 Appropriation Bill for procurement of FP commodities in a renewed effort at fulfilling its commitment to pay annual counterpart contribution for commodities procurement.

“It is our fervent hope that the 36 states and the FCDA will take a cue from this and appropriate funds for FP in their 2024 appropriations.

“Our sincere expectation is that FCTA would consolidate its current collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), USAID’s Global Health Supply Chain- Procurement and Supply Management Project and other partners to fast-track the implementation of the contents of this national guideline.”

The UNFPA national FP analyst, Dr Ummulkhulthum Bojoga, said, “It is time to explore domestic resource mobilisation for FP commodities and for states to contribute to the procurement of commodities.”

She also said that for every dollar spent on FP commodities and maternal health, the government could save up to 8.4 dollars in return on investment.

According to her, the benefits of FP include the prevention of maternal and infant mortality and morbidity associated with unintended pregnancy, meeting the unmet need for contraceptives to further reduce the rate of maternal mortality by 68 per cent and newborn mortality by 85 per cent.

She said unintended pregnancies would drop by 77 per cent if all unmet needs for modern contraceptives were met.

Ms Bojoga added that the past 12 years of FP commodities distribution in the FCT had made some health impacts, such as aversion of 358 maternal deaths, aversion of 76,065 unintended pregnancies, aversion of 29,742 unplanned births and 31,101 unsafe abortions.

She identified increased demand and decreased supply, rising stock out rate and dwindling donor funding as some of the challenges encountered in delivering FP commodities to FCT residents.

Dr Dolapo Fasawe, the mandate secretary, health services and environment secretariat of the FCTA, said the FCTA had been working with some partners to ensure that FP activities received necessary attention in the areas of training, outreach, demand creation and community mobilisation.

Represented by the executive secretary, FCT Primary Health Care Board, Dr Yakubu Mohammed, Ms Fasawe said this was to help meet the contraceptive needs of over 1.4 million women of reproductive age, which is 22 per cent of the total population in the city.

This is also to achieve the set target of a two per cent annual increase and a 30 per cent Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (mCPR) by 2024, which is the FCT FP Costed Implementation Plan 2020- 2024.

Ms Fasawe, however, said that inadequate supply and out-of-stock FP commodities remained a serious challenge.

“In FCT, there are 446 public and private FP service delivery points with trained providers and these include primary, secondary and tertiary health facilities.

“FCT recognises the contributions of the private sector, which underscores the efforts to increase collaboration. The state’s last-mile distribution of FP commodities, being supported by USAID GHSC-PSM, currently covers 109 private facilities.

“The current leadership of the FCTA is aware of the various advocacy activities regarding the funding needs for procurement of FP commodities, distribution and creation of standalone budget line and timely release of funds for FP key activities in the FCT.

“We shall work with the Federal Ministry of Health, UNFPA and other stakeholders to achieve this.

“This is imperative and the best way forward because FP services are strategic to the reduction of maternal and child morbidity and mortality and one of the major interventions required in improving the health of the mother, child, the family and community at large.”

The FP guidelines are to standardise, document and institutionalise the processes of forecasting, quantification, procurement, warehousing and inventory management, distribution, pipeline monitoring, service delivery and utilisation of commodities in the country.

(NAN)