Expert tasks stakeholders with breaking barriers against family planning

The Chairman of the Technical Management Committee, of the Association for the Advancement of Family Planning, Dr. Ejike Oji, says engaging stakeholders like traditional and religious leaders is key to breaking some barriers against family planning. He said this on Thursday in Abuja, during an interview with the newsmen.

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He explained that using strategic messages and choosing the right messengers were necessary for convincing family planning sceptics to access family planning services, especially in rural areas.

“To break the cultural barriers, we need to continuously engage traditional and religious leaders and women in the rural areas.

“We need to deploy strategic messages that will resonate with them and also choose the right messengers and be mindful of the way the messages are passed,” he said.

The family planning expert, however, emphasised the need for the local and traditional media to embark on public education.

Dr. Oji added that there is room for improvement in terms of family planning advocacy, whilst expressing satisfaction with the progress made so far.

“You will see that the advocacy is working in terms of demand generation but I wonder whether we are doing well enough in getting the services available to women,” he said.

Oji reaffirmed his commitment to increasing family planning advocacy, even as he acknowledged that the project had been largely underfunded.

Wumi/SS/Punch