Despite country’s 2012 pledge, Nigeria records 13.9% mCPR

With barely 13 months to go before the target FP2020 objectives on contraceptives usage, indicators show that Nigeria currently has a 13. 9 percent Modern Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (mCPR) for all women, Adebiyi Adesina, a Senior Economist with Avenir Health, a US based agency on Track 20 has confirmed.

The Federal Government in collaboration with partners and private sector stakeholders had in 2012, pledged to achieve a mCPR of 27 per cent in Nigeria among all women by 2020.

mCPR refers to a proportion of women, ages 15-49 , who are using, or whose partners are using a modern method of contraception including hormonal and barrier methods, sterilisation, emergency contraception, Lactational Amenorrhea Method (LAM) and standard days/cycle beads method.

FP2020 is an outcome of July 2012 London Summit where over 20 countries committed to enable 120 million more women and girls, have access to live saving contraceptives, irrespective of where they live by 2020.

Achieving the FP2020 Goal is a critical milestone to ensuring universal access to sexual reproductive health services and rights by 2030, as laid out by the SDG 3 and 5.

Adesina added that the current mCPR is a national average as situations in each state varies. Speaking during the 5th Nigeria Family Planning Conference (NFPC2018) with theme, “Investment. Innovation. Inclusiveness’’ organised by the Association for the Advancement of Family Planning (AAFP), he said two key populations would trigger Nigeria’s growth in FP use, women between the ages of 15 and 24, and Post Partum women within the first six months of delivery.

Adesina said that in terms of programme implementation, data is key and state data is going to be even more crucial in achieving the contraceptive usage and FP2020 targets.