Wife of Ogun State Governor, Mrs. Bamidele Abiodun has maintained that her office would harness the developmental drive of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), in the State to further enhance effective family planning services, adolescent reproductive healthcare as well as overall family well-being
Mrs Abiodun said this while playing host to the team of Family Health Initiative, Ogun (FHIO), a Non-Governmental advocacy working group, in Iperu, Remo North Local Government Area of the State.
She noted the remarkable efforts and contributions of NGOs in various aspect of the economy cannot be over emphasized, saying provision of efficient healthcare and improvement on the health indices of the State remain a collective responsibility.
According to her, the contributions of NGOs particularly your group to the well-being of people and socio-economic development has been a remarkable one and I will establish a direct relationship in promoting family planning activities, ante-natal and post-natal care and adolescent reproductive health.
She appreciated the selfless strides of the Group, as well as detailed information and education on the state of maternal, child and adolescent health in the State, assured to do her best, reach out to organizations and well-meaning individuals in order for the State to achieve more on healthcare delivery.
In his presentation, Secretary of FHIO, Revd. Olajide Odugbemi, said the Group was passionate about family well-being particularly on women, children, adolescent and youths, noting that the support of policy makers, agencies and relevant stakeholders has been encouraging.
Odugbemi who highlighted the achievements recorded by the Group since its establishment in 2014 to include, creating of Budget line for Family Planning, facilitating the domestication of Task Shifting and Sharing Policy, Family Planning Costed Implementation Plan, training of FP Youth Ambassador among others for the State to achieve 52 percent Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR), by year 2020.
Contributing, The Demand Creation Technical Assistant, The Challenge Initiative (TCI), an Urban Reproductive Health Project in the State, Dr. Bunmi Oyelade, pointed out that the State had greater opportunities to tap in the provision of qualitative healthcare for the people, stating that the State should address the unmet needs on Family Planning while adolescent and youth reproductive health should be a core concern, adding that interventions in this regard should be data driven with institutionalization of feedback mechanism.
