WORLD POPULATION DAY: “FAMILY PLANNING IS A HUMAN RIGHT”

WORLD ASSEMBLY OF YOUTH


PRESS RELEASE

WORLD POPULATION DAY: “FAMILY PLANNING IS A HUMAN RIGHT”

Globally, the population has doubled since 1968 and grown by almost 40 percent since reaching 5 billion in 1987, an event that led to the first World Population Day. Growth will continue at least until mid-century despite dramatic declines in the average number of children per woman, according to UN population division.

World Population Day, which seeks to focus attention on the urgency and importance of population issues, was established by the then-governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme in 1989, an outgrowth of the interest generated by the Day of Five Billion, which was observed on 11 July 1987.

The theme for World Population Day 2018 is “Family Planning is a Human Right”. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the 1968 International Conference on Human Rights, where family planning was, for the first time, globally affirmed to be a human right. The conference’s outcome document, known as the Teheran Proclamation, stated unequivocally: “Parents have a basic human right to determine freely and responsibly the number and spacing of their children.”

Embedded in this legislative language was a game-changing realization: Women and girls have the right to avoid the exhaustion, depletion, and danger of too many pregnancies, too close together. Men and women have the right to choose when and how often to embrace parenthood if at all. Every individual has the human right to determine the direction and scope of his or her future in this fundamental way.

We, at World Assembly of Youth (WAY), are fully aware that over population growth is occurring all over the world but the growth often multiplies mostly in less developed countries. We believe that as more and more individuals share our planet, new challenges arise daily. Thus, it rests on individual decisions and actions to control global population growth particularly those from young people considering them as the largest portion of the world population. Therefore, taking into account the urgency to solve the current population challenges, we urge young people to educate others including their peers especially those living in less developed countries on effective family planning, sex education amongst adolescents and the importance of using a contraceptive.

Thus, at this point, we cannot know with certainty when or if world population can feasibly be stabilized, nor can we state with assurance the limits of the world's ecological "carrying capability", but we can be certain of the desired direction of change that we seek which is to ensure reproductive health through the channel of education.

NGO PUSH FOR INCREASE ACCESS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE TO HEALTH SERVICES

Action Health Incorporated (AHI) has made a call for more Youth Friendly Health Service (YFHS) centers to be made available for young people in Lagos State. This call was made during the project dissemination on the integration of YFHS in two Primary Health Care centers, Ashogbon and Iwaya in Lagos State;  a project supported by Champions for Change Nigeria.

According to the Permanent Secretary of the Lagos State Primary Healthcare Board (LSPHCB), Dr. Iyabo Are, Adolescent and Youth Friendly services are an integral part of the Primary Health Care System. As a social service, the state considers the provision of Youth Friendly Services of paramount importance and as a cost-effective strategy in disease prevention and health promotion amongst youths and adolescents.

Findings and lessons learnt from the one-year intervention were disseminated to stakeholders comprising representatives from the Lagos State Primary Healthcare Board, Lagos State Ministries of Health, Lagos State Ministry of Youth & Social Development, Community members, Civil Society and young people from the targeted communities. Funso Bukoye, the Project Coordinator, asserted that many young people engaged in risky sexual behaviour due to lack of information on sexual and reproductive health.

According to Ms. Bukoye, the judgmental attitudes of healthcare service providers, socio-cultural norms, adolescents’ own fear and shame, disapproval from parents and community gate-keeping contribute to adolescents’ inability to access health information and services.

Furthermore, she explained that an endline survey conducted among 500 young people in the intervention communities; Iwaya Yaba and Ilaje-Bariga showed that there was increase in numbers of young people accessing services at the PHCs from 18% to 34.6% and Involvement in multiple sexual partnerships declined from 56.1% to 48.5%.  A total of 3,658 young people were reached with clinical services at the 2 facilities out of which 48% accessed general health services, 31% accessed health education and 21% accessed sexual and reproductive health services.  Also, over 5,000 young people were reached with sexual and reproductive health (SRH) information. Thus, she called for the project to be scaled up across all other PHCs in Lagos State to reach young people including those in remote areas.

The Executive Director of AHI, Mrs. Adenike Esiet, also advised that there should be capacity building and on-the-job training for healthcare providers to effectively deliver youth-friendly healthcare services. According to her, the world is changing, and many young people are exposed to so much information and peer pressure; and there is need for professionals that will educate these young ones without criticism.

Dr Adefunke Adesina, who represented the Special Adviser to the Governor on Primary Health Care, Dr. Olufemi Onanuga, said that the government was committed to healthy development of the youth and more youth-friendly health centers would be provided in the state. This was further affirmed by Dr.  Are who said that the State Government is also looking at increasing human resource and public health facilities to improve service delivery with ongoing renovations.

In a related development, the outcomes of the intervention were also shared at the 8th Africa Conference on Sexual Health and Rights (ACSHR), held in Johannesburg, South Africa from February 12 to February 16, 2018.