2024-07-19 14:28:15
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The Ministry of Health and Public Hygiene in partnership with SWEDD, UNFPA, the World Bank and other technical and financial partners launched this Thursday, July 18, the national campaign for the free provision of family planning services 2024.
The aim is to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality rates.
Through this campaign, 20% of the population who do not have access to family planning will be able to benefit from it.
“This campaign launch comes at a time when the Ministry of Health is resolutely committed to its efforts to reduce maternal mortality. And as you know, family planning is one of the promising strategies that can help achieve this objective.
It has now become a ritual for us, because every year, we organize a week of free family planning orders, especially throughout the national territory. And so, on this occasion, we have the opportunity to catch up on unmet needs in family planning. The needs, they still remain high in our country, that is to say women or girls or men who want to access this service but, who do not succeed, and this proportion is 22%. And therefore, one of the objectives of the present distribution campaign, “said Doctor Djénè, the National Director of Family Health and Nutrition in her welcoming speech.
Continuing, she emphasizes that the said campaign is an opportunity to catch up with this gap and improve vaccination coverage, reduce unmet needs in terms of family planning. She welcomed the support of certain sectoral departments, SWEDD Guinea, UNFPA, the World Bank among others for this campaign.
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), through its deputy representative, signified the quintessence of this support through the desire of its entity to minimize the mortality rate of women and especially children by making family planning services free by 2024.
“Family planning is now recognized as a real pillar of socio-cultural and economic development. Indeed, improving people’s access to family planning services not only helps prevent around 30% of maternal deaths and nearly 10% of child deaths. It also contributes significantly to reducing poverty and hunger, strengthening women’s empowerment and improving education for all, as well as preserving the environment. In our country, every day, six women die giving birth. Family planning remains a sure way to prevent these maternal deaths. This is evidenced by the significant resources invested by the State to cover 50% of the country’s needs in contraceptive products for several years, the efforts to mobilize endogenous resources deployed among communities in Guinea and Rwanda,” said Patricia Keba.
And the UNFPA representative added: “With this campaign to offer family planning services, control of frequency is improving with contraceptive prevalence rates for modern methods increasing from 10.1 to 13.5 between 2018 and 2023. In addition, the impact of family planning on sexual and reproductive health through the provision of contraceptives covering 283 groups has prevented 46,000 desired pregnancies, 20,000 unsafe abortions and 220 maternal deaths. These data indicate that we can save lives. And we can guarantee that no woman dies giving birth and that each woman decides when to have children. But we must reinforce all of this with free services. The urgency of deepening the reflection on the effective free provision of contraceptive products is a necessity to help us sustain the gains and guarantee the safety of children. UNFPA remains committed to you and will strengthen efforts, especially with adolescents and young people, during its new cooperation programme for the period 2022-2024,” she promised.
For his part, Mamadou Safayiou Bah, indicates that SWEDD Guinea covers: “14 prefectures and 153 communes. To date, we have provided 153 health centers, 153 health posts with equipment and technical and operational capacities.”
Presiding over the ceremony, the Secretary General of the Ministry of Health and Public Hygiene stressed the importance of the campaign.
“This morning’s ceremony marks the official start of this campaign under the theme [planification familiale, un moyen d’espacement des grossesses et d’épanouissement de la famille]. In Guinea, according to the results of the 2018 demographic survey, contraceptive prevalence is 10%. The estimate made with Prat-Zone in 2023 showed a rate of 13 to 25% while the objective was to reach 18.5% in 2023. Current data show that these objectives are very far from being achieved. The synthetic fertility rate remains high at 4.8 births per woman,” recalled Khaïté Sall,
And the Secretary General of the Ministry of Health and Public Hygiene continued: “I congratulate all stakeholders for their commitment alongside the Ministry of Health and Public Hygiene to improve access to and use of health services for the population. I particularly salute the commitment of young people who are taking charge of their future and encourage them to persevere because the road is still long. I take this opportunity to reiterate the gratitude of the people of Guinea to all development partners for their constant support in improving health in general and maternal and child health in particular,” said Khaïté Sall while kicking off the family planning campaign which will take place from July 23 to 28, 2024.
May Cissé