By Rawlings Otieno
Nairobi, Kenya: The Government plans to expand access to contraceptives and options to save and improve women’s lives.
Health Principal Secretary Fred Segor said the Government had pledged to protect women’s rights to family planning by securing additional financial resources and implementing strategies to reach the poorest and hardest-to-reach segments of the population.
“Kenya has long recognised that family planning is a key driver of development, leading to healthier, better educated and more productive populations,” said Segor.
He said the Government seeks to reach a 56 per cent modern contraceptive prevalence rate by 2015.
The PS made the remarks during the launch of the Family Planning Report in Nairobi yesterday.
The report was a follow up of the 2012 London Summit on Family Planning that brought together global leaders who committed to providing an additional 120 million women and girls in the world’s poorest countries with voluntary access to modern contraceptive information, services and supplies by 2020.
The Government also plans to reach more youth with comprehensive reproductive health information and other social services by creating youth empowerment centres across Kenya.
Additionally, Kenya has changed its policies to allow community health workers to provide injectable contraceptives.
“Kenya’s leadership on Family Planning 2020 has been exemplary and can serve as a model for other countries across Africa and around the world to follow,” said Elizabeth Lule, the director of family planning at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
International partners
Both Bayer Healthcare and MSD Pharmaceuticals are working closely with international partners, including Jhpiego, Marie Stopes International and the Ministry of Health to ensure that health workers are trained to properly insert and remove implants and provide counselling on all methods of contraception.
“Social commitment is at the heart of Bayer’s business strategy, and we are proud to contribute to global efforts to expand access to family planning,” said Sebastian Guth, head of strategic marketing, general medicine at Bayer HealthCare.