Bauchi State govt, partners unveil child spacing plan
From Yahaya Audu, Bauchi
Bauchi State government in conjunction with an international Non-Governmental Organisation, Health Policy Plus (HP+) have launched a Costed Implementation Plan (CIP) for child spacing in the state.
The plan was a state adopted National Planning Blueprint developed to give direction to Bauchi State’s child spacing programme.
It captures and budgets for all evidence based child spacing interventions tailored towards achieving the goals of improving the health and wellbeing of the populace through family planning.
“In line with this, Bauchi State which has a current CPR of 2.1% is expected to grow by 23.54% by 2018. Although this has been extended to 2020.”
In his speech during the launch yesterday, HP+ country director, Onoriode Ezire who was represented by the Bauchi State Policy and Advocacy Team leader, Hajara Moses John said that HP+ has been playing a leading role by coordinating partners for the development of the plan.
“The design of a roadmap, prerequisite for the success of Bauchi State Childbirth Spacing Costed Implementation Plan (CIP). Indeed, Bauchi State has again achieved an unprecedented feat as one of the leading states in the health reformation agenda in the country,”he said.
In a keynote address, wife of Bauchi State governor Hajiya Hadiza Mohammed Abubakar said that Bauchi state has refocused her attention to Family Planning and Child Spacing program because of the poor child spacing performance in the last decades.
The speech, delivered by the Permanent Secretary Bauchi State ministry of health, Dr Aliyu Sa’idu Gital said that Bauchi State in addition to its maternal mortality rate index, it also has the highest fertility of 8.1% which is higher than the national average as well as a low take of modern Cotraceptives Prevalence Rate (CPR) of 2.3%.
“Thus the state deem it necessary to galvanise efforts in developing robust family planning/child spacing strategies that will contribute to improving maternal and child health in the state,” he said.
He added that CIP is a product of financial and technical inputs and participation by stakeholders led by the state ministry of health and support from other development partners.
“With the plan being officially launched today, it is our expectation that the support and contributions of the donor and implementing partners would transcend the document development stage and be extended to the implementation of the plan itself,”he added.
