Government Urged to Allocate More Funds for Family Planning
Kenya National and County government have been urged to allocate more funds for family planning as vast impacts of Covid-19 reveals how women, children and adolescent are in a tragedy of unprepared expectancy.
By Shadrack Musumba
The Kenyan government has been urged to allocate more funds for family planning in the wake of Covid-19 after the evidenced cases of ballooning teenage pregnancies.
Kenya National and County government have been urged to allocate more funds for family planning as vast impacts of Covid-19 reveals how women, children and adolescent are in a tragedy of unprepared expectancy.
This follows after a meeting held on Wednesday 12th August 2020 by the Health Nongovernmental Organizations Networks (HENNT), Civil Societies Organizations (CSOs), and representatives from County government of Isiolo and Busia amongst other stakeholders found out that both government do not prioritize family planning.
Busia County was found out to be leading in teenage pregnancies at 21% according to county director Melsa Lutomia.
Isiolo, a semi-arid area was found out to be in challenges in accessing family planning services a case that has resulted to intensification of pregnancy rate impacted by the pierce of Covid-19.
An alarming figure was exploded in June by the Kenyan media where close to 4,000 school girls were impregnated during covid-19 lockdown.
The disturbing news story emanated from closure of schools where no guidance of teachers in place while Kenyan parents fail to discuss sexual matters with their children.
The HENNET Chief Executive officer Dr. Mercy Onsando has anecdotally lamented that there is need to consider inclusion of contraceptive commodities and services within health benefit packages, considering that some medical insurance schemes do not cover contraceptive use.
“The National government should demonstrate commitments to the national policies and strategies, a commitment that the counties can emulate and expedite reserve funding for FP in the national program- based budget,” said Dr. Onsando.
The stakeholders also recommended prioritizing and strengthening pooling of orders to mitigate costs associated with logistics in the supply chain.
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