 |
| Tope Fashola, Jayne Whyte, Donald Dickerson, Esther Agbarakwe and Aliyu Aminu Ahmed |
NDHS Statistics have shown that 59.4% of urban women delivered in a health facility, 24.7% of rural women deliver in a health facility and 35.0% of women in Nigeria deliver in a health facility…does this give you goose bumps? Okay wait let me tell you more!
Do you know that 7.9% of women ages 15-49 are using any type of modern Family Planning method, 20.3% of married women aged 15-49 have an unmet need for family planning, 41% of women did not access health care because they were concerned that there would be no drugs available and 34.8% because there would be no health care provider available.
Advocates for Family planning have identified the need to increase advocacy(high level and low level) to ensure that Nigerians have access to contraceptive commodities and this realization, birthed the Advocacy Group called Family Planning Advocacy Group also known as FPAG; which has individual and organisations as members with the common goal of reducing maternal and child deaths through Family Planning.
We know that half of the world’s population is made up of young people, 90% of whom live in developing countries and it is a well know fact that young people adapt quickly to new technologies and new means of communication. Presently, Nigeria currently boasts of over 40 million internet users, out of which 4,196,240 are Facebook users, making the country rank Number 38 in terms of global usage of Face book. Other social media channels much patronized by Nigerians include the micro blogging site-Twitter and Blogsites. The rise in number of users is mainly due to more access to internet and mobile phones.
Consequently, Social Media has become a valuable tool for advocacy and social change; it provides an inimitable communication avenue, which can be leveraged to promote Family Planning in Nigeria.
To unleash the hidden and too often wasted potential for youth development, a group of motivated young people with experience both as youth activists and within development agencies have set up the Youth Arm of Family Planning Advocacy Group (FPAG).
Stay Tuned for more …..
Jayne Whyte's Portfolio 
Leave a comment