Experts advocate use of technology for reproductive health
Health practitioners have called on the government and the private sector to leverage technology to provide sexual and reproductive health services to Nigerians, especially youths on Friday.
The Experts made the call during a panel discussion on ‘The Changing Faces of Content Creation in Africa: How will our stories be told in the next 10 years’, at the 2022 AfricaNXT week, in Lagos.
AfricaNXT, formally Social Media Week, is an annual event and has its theme as ‘Reimagine Now, Co-create Next’ for the 2022 edition.
The Experts digitising and investing in tech startups that target the sexual and reproductive health of young people will reduce issues of unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases in society.
In addition, they said technology can provide answers to young people who want to connect and need answers to questions like ‘what to do’, ‘where to go’ and ‘what commodities needed’, when it came to sexual and reproductive matter.
Dr. Rhoda Robinson, Executive Director, HACEY Health Initiative, said there is no place in the world where innovation resides in the public sector.
She further explained that, regulators are always catching up with innovators in private sectors to achieve a purpose.
She said the private sector should leverage innovations on their side to share information about sexual and reproductive health to youths by slotting sexual messages like “condom prevents unwanted pregnancy” in their advertisements.
Robinson said the private sector could also contribute by funding research and innovations targeting the modern-day needs of youths in the area of sexual and reproductive health.
Also speaking, Dr. Omowumi Ogunrotimi, Executive Director, Gender Mobile Initiative, said technology has ways of solving health and social problems such as the cultural belief of some parents that eight-year-olds should not be educated about sexual and reproductive life.
“Young ones now have direct access to useful information about sexual and reproductive health on the internet.”
“Technology has closed the gap of unfair attitude usually meted to younger people who want sexual-related services by health workers. A young lady can now order material like condoms online if they don’t want a negative attitude from pharmacists.”
“Social media like Facebook is also a great tool to preach the message of sexual and reproductive health to the targeted young audience,“ she said.
The Co-Founder of HACEY Health Initiative, Dr. Isaiah Owolabi, said advanced technology like artificial intelligence, data management and robotics are critical in formulating good government policies on sexual and reproductive health.
He advised the government to use Public-Private Partnership to build youth-friendly health facilities and technology.
“Government should do more in closing the gender digital gap and ensure availability of needed health technology in rural communities for youths,“ he said.
Technology and Innovation Consultant, Mr. Abiola Oshunniyi, said youths should explore useful health technology to make fortunes.
Abiola said they could do this by learning skills that solve sexual and reproductive health issues and engaging in health tech startups and healthcare apps development.
PHW
