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Uganda: Increase Resources for Family Planning
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New Vision (Kampala)
OPINION
10 July 2008
Posted to the web 11 July 2008
Sylvia Nabanoba
Kampala
Today, Uganda joins the rest of the world to mark World Population Day. As we celebrate this day, our attention is drawn to the fact that people have the right to access family planning information and services to help them make informed choices about their reproductive options.
The global theme for the day, "The Right to Family Planning," reflects this and so does the national theme, "Promote and Invest in Family Planning for National Development." The celebrations will be held at Kakyeka Stadium, Mbarara district.
The national theme echoes a call to leaders and policy makers to realise the importance of family planning, support it and ensure that all those who need it have access to it.
This theme takes me back to a fact-finding mission we were on a few months ago in Mbarara and Kibaale districts, in preparation for the World Population Day celebrations and evaluating the impact of some of our projects. Visiting various health centres and homes, we met men and women who had never heard of family planning, but when sensitised, they passionately expressed interest in it.
Some of the women told us that the only way they stop having children is by advising their husbands to get other wives if they (husbands) are interested in having more children, which their husbands agree to.
Such a situation portrays what many women in Uganda, especially in the rural areas, are going through.
The Uganda Demographic Health Survey 2006 shows that over 1.4 million women in Uganda would like to delay pregnancy, space their children or stop childbearing altogether, but are not currently using any contraceptive method. This is due to lack of access to the right information and to family planning services.
On average, a Ugandan woman produces seven children in her lifetime, yet the survey shows that women would want to produce only five children. This is the lowest ideal family size reported compared to actual fertility in sub-Saharan Africa.
Family planning is a cornerstone of development. At household level, it can reduce poverty, increase savings, contribute to better education, health, nutrition and housing for the family, as well as psychological benefits. Along with poor health, large family size has been identified by communities as one of the major causes of household poverty.
Evidence also shows that the use of family planning can reduce death of women in child birth by 30%. If the number of mothers who die is reduced, there is a higher chance that child survival will go up.
To the nation, family planning has the potential to reduce the high child dependency ratio that places a heavy burden on the working population and boost the Government's capacity to provide quality social services to meet the basic needs of a rapidly growing population.
We, therefore, need to deal with the various factors that stop people from accessing and using family planning information and services. First is to fight the misconceptions about family planning and the effects that contraceptives may have on future fertility, unborn children and women's health. These have been instrumental in stopping couples from seeking family planning services.
It is also important for opinion leaders to understand the benefits that accrue from family planning and support it. The fact that a number of them decampaign it results in family planning not receiving the support and resources it requires at national, district and lower levels.
If we seize the opportunities and benefits that family planning offers, Uganda can realise many of her development goals and ensure that her people have a high quality of life.
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The writer is the media liaison officer at the Population Secretariat
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