The United Nations Population Fund UNFPA and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs have signed an agreement for the implementation of a three-year project entitled, “Advancing Access to Comprehensive Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights of Adolescent Girls and Women” in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
The new project worth 2.2 billion Naira, would consolidate and build on the achievements of the recently-concluded Norway-funded Integrated approach to empowering adolescent girls and women in Gombe and Akwa Ibom states of Nigeria through access to sexual and reproductive health and rights.
The new project aims at supporting health intervention for women and girls in selected local government areas of Gombe, Akwa Ibom, and Kaduna States.
At the signing ceremony, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Nigeria Resident Representative, Ms. Ulla Mueller said that the project objectives are to improve access to quality family planning counseling and services for adolescent girls and women of reproductive age; increase access to quality emergency obstetric and new-born care services for women and girls; increase access to quality obstetric fistula care and prevention services for women and girls living with obstetric fistula; increase access to sexual & reproductive health information and life skills for adolescent girls; increase access to information on sexual & reproductive health including STI/HIV, gender equality and ending harmful practices for men and boys; and increase the operational capacities of national partners and civil society organizations to address social norms to improve access to SRH services and gender equality.
While appreciating Nigeria for its support, she further called on Nigeria to fulfill the promise made at the Nairobi declaration.
She also said that “In Nigeria where contraceptive prevalence rate has been stagnant for 12%, for more than a decade, this is critical support from the government and women of the country. We are deeply grateful for the support w had from the Ministry of Health and Women and Affairs, but we will also like to take this opportunity to plead with the Nigerian government to please pay your 25 commitment. You have made an international commitment of 4 million dollars annually for over five to support contraceptives in Nigeria, so I’m urging you to please release the 21 and 22 commitment of 8 million dollars to enable us to scale up contraceptive prevalence in Nigeria”.
On the challenges encountered, she said, “they are many traditions that are rooted in Nigeria, especially around child marriage and girls’ education, and about women’s right to make their own choices. What we have done here in this project is that we have raised a lot of awareness at the community level with community leaders and also with traditional rulers. With this new face of the project, we’ll continue to work with them, also increase focus on the young people, because it’s ultimately about bodily autonomy and ensuring that young women and men understand the concept of rights and choices” She noted.
According to the Norwegian Ambassador to Nigeria, Knut Eiliv Lein, it takes the involvement of all levels of government for the programme to succeed. “Our programme can only succeed if the efforts made by UNFPA are met by ownership and engagement from the local and federal government. We can help for a while, but we need Politicians and local healthcare services to make our intervention sustainable in the long run. it is good to note that Nigeria’s government is important,
I look forward to doing what we as an embassy can in continuing to engage governments and reaching out to them”
He further explained why the choice of the three mentioned states.
“I am proud to partner with UNFPA here in Nigeria. Our new agreement is built on the previous experiences we share. We decided to focus on the parts of our previous agreement that worked well and gave impact. an And then to double our efforts, both literally in terms of support, and outreach. We have together chosen three states, namely Akwa Ibom, Gombe, and Kaduna. This is because the needs are there, but also because you have good experiences working there, including with the state governments” He said.
The expected beneficiaries are 180,000 women of reproductive age (aged 15-49 years) at risk of unplanned pregnancies; 2,000 women and girls living with complications of obstetric fistula; 6,500 adolescent girls (4,000 aged 10-14 years and 2,500 aged 15-19 years) at risk of early and forced marriages. It will also target 30,000 adolescent boys with access to information on sexual & reproductive health; 520 healthcare workers with quality training to deliver quality SRH/FP including emergency obstetric care and fistula management services; 330 teachers to mentor girls and boys; 2,500,000 community members (men, women, boys, and girls) with information on sexual & reproductive health and gender equality; 2,400 female teachers benefit from information and knowledge on managing safe spaces from their peers; and 1000 male teachers benefit from the information and knowledge sharing (on managing youth clubs) from their peers.
Dominica Nwabufo
