Kenya Surpasses Its Contraceptive Use Target- Family Planning Report

As more African women and girls embrace the use of contraceptive methods (injectables, condoms, implants and the pill), Kenya is among the nine countries that are on their way to realizing the set goals of growth in the use of contraceptives by next year (2020).

The family planning report launched on Monday, 11^th November 2019, showed that the outcome of embracing contraceptives has led to the prevention of 119 million unintended pregnancies, 21 million unsafe abortions and 134,000 maternal deaths in the year 2018.

The report, titled  FP2020: Women at the Centre, produced by Family Planning 2020,  was launched just at the time the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) summit, whose central agendum was maternal health and sexual rights.

According to the report, the number of women using contraceptives globally has increased by about two percent since 2012, with southern and eastern African women being on the fore front.

The report shows that Kenya’s FP2020 commitment was to be at about 58 percent by 2020, but as at now, Kenya has surpassed its goal, standing at 60 percent contraceptive use.

Other countries that are on track to meeting their FP2020 commitment are Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Ghana, Kyrgyz Republic, Mozambique Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe.

While the use of contraceptives has proven to empower women and girls and largely contribute to the rising of the economy, maternal health sector is still hit by hitches, funding being the main problem.

The report showed that throughout the world, women healthcare is mot handled with the utmost seriousness it deserves as it emerged that about 230 million women and girls who need to use contraceptives are not able to get them.

“It is evident that when you invest in a woman, you not only uplift a woman out of poverty but the whole society realizes economic gains. The whole world therefore must be committed to improve the state of the world by investing in women and girls, and especially in their healthcare,” said Beth Schlachter, executive director of Family Planning 2020, during the launch.

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