Uganda misses 2020 family planning targets

The strategy to extend family planning services to atleast 3.7 million women by 2020 is yet to be achieved two years after the estimated achievement time frame, fear of contraceptive side effects and stigma partly causing the delays, the Ministry of Health has said.

Under the 2015-2020 Family Planning Costed Implementation plan worth Shs872 trillion, the Health ministry and National Population Council targeted at increasing the number of women using modern contraception methods from about 1.7 million to 3.7 million by 2020. 

However, the Minister of Health, Dr Jane Ruth Aceng, said this has not been achieved because the majority of Ugandans are reluctant to seek sexual reproductive health services.

“The 2015-2020 Family Planning Costed Implementation plan was meant to improve demand creation, service delivery and access as well as ensuring contraceptive security to among others increase the number of women using modern contraceptive methods,” Dr Aceng said yesterday.

“Uganda’s poor performance is directly linked to poor access to sexual reproductive health services, this is leading to poverty, conflict, unwanted and unintended pregnancies and violence against women and girls,” she added.

According to Dr Aceng, said most of the young people are facing numerous challenges that prevent them from using quality sexual reproductive health services.

These include stigma, fear of contraceptive side effects and unaffordable healthcare costs.
A 2019 study by the Guttmacher Institute found that an estimated 648,000 women aged 15-19 in Uganda are sexually active and do not want a child in the next two years. 

The research also revealed that more than 60 percent have an unmet need for modern contraception, meaning that they either use no contraceptive method or use traditional methods of contraception.

The director for family planning at the National Population Council, Dr Betty Kyadondo, said the country is also facing the challenge of Universal health coverage which has been not achieved in some parts of the country, especially in the rural areas.

“The reproductive health statistics of Uganda shows that Uganda is not performing very well in some of those key areas of reproduction. For example, universal health coverage where most our girls are not very well advised and educated on how to space their births, yet the fertility of Uganda is considered to be relatively high,” Dr Kayondo said.

She added: “Uganda needs to urgently address the issues regarding sexual reproductive health rights of young people as an essential part to meet the universal health coverage goals and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal III on healthy lives and well-being.”

The statistics from National Population Council show that 25 percent of Ugandan girls below the age of 19 are pregnant with 336 maternal deaths in every 100,000 mothers.

Solutions 

The director of clinical services at the Ministry of Health, Dr Charles Alaro, said the ministry is cognisant of the challenges which failed the 2020 family planning target and he encouraged government to invest more in family planning.

“If we are to realise our vision 2040, then we have to be able to invest in family planning. It is one of the six key aspects of safe motherhood so we need to look at it not just as a health issue but as a socio-economic issue because you can’t get people out of poverty if the population continues to grow,” Dr Alaro said yesterday.

“But we already have some solutions in place, for example, we moved and allowed shops to dispense family planning commodities and we also have a total market approach where you put services in segments so that those who are able pay can pay and government continues to provide for those who can’t,” he added.

Other solutions are use of self-care where women can inject themselves without going to the health facility, government is committed to increasing funding for Family planning as well as attracting partnerships in the field to increase sexual reproductive health awareness and education among the youths.

The director of programmes, Mr Peter Buyongo at Population Services international (Family planning partner) told Monitor that the private sector is supporting couples to uptake postpartum family planning to ensure that women are ready for family planning after birth.

“We are now layering our programmes with gender, meaning that we are looking out for sexual and gender-based violence since it is one of the major risks that we find, we, therefore, ensure that  both partners agree before the woman goes for family planning,” Mr Buyongo said.