Lagos - Marie Stopes Nigeria provided its first ever family planning services (via outreach) to women in Kwali, located 50km south west of Abuja, the site of Marie Stopes Nigeria's future first clinic and head office.
When the team arrived in Kwali last Thursday the services were in such high demand that 75 women were already waiting. This is promising news, as Marie Stopes Nigeria looks to make a significant contribution to the country’s sexual and reproductive health (SRH) sector over the coming years.
With between 65-75% of all health care currently being delivered by the non state sector, the Government of Nigeria is making serious noises about the need for greater engagement with other sectors. Linked to this is an intention to undertake a number of pilot projects focused on subcontracting out essential services from the State to other sectors.
This could provide just the setting that Marie Stopes Nigeria needs to make a sizeable contribution in Africa’s most populous nation. And there is little doubt that Nigeria has some serious SRH challenges to face up to:
- the population is set to reach 179 million by 2015
- 45% of the population are aged between 10-19
- 23% of the population are aged between 15-24
- women of childbearing age constitute 23% of the population
- maternal mortality rate in some parts of the country is 1,000 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births
- 40% of pregnant women experience pregnancy-related health problems during or after pregnancy or childbirth
- a contraceptive prevalence rate of just 8.6%
Having now delivered their first family planning services, and with the inaugural clinic set to open in Kwale in the next two months, Marie Stopes Nigeria hopes to help the Government rise to these challenges.