Allow women, girls to decide number of children – UNFPA Country Rep

Dr Ochan

 The Country Representative for United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA), Dr Wilfred Ochan has called for the empowerment of girls and women to enable them decide the number of children they want to have.

He said the decision to avoid or delay pregnancy was a struggle endured privately by most women and girls in low and middle-income countries as some were not permitted to take contraceptives without prior approval from their partners.

Dr Ochan said this on Tues­day in Accra at the National Launch of the 2023 Family Plan­ning week which was held on the theme “family planning, my choice, my freedom.”

The day was also to com­memorate the World Contra­ceptive Day which is marked on September 26 each year.

According to Dr Ochan lim­ited choice of contraceptive methods, availability of services and gender based barriers were also some of the hindrances to making it difficult for women and girls to have a decision on the number of children they wish to have.

He said there have been some biases against some methods which had resulted in misinfor­mation, information restriction and also limited access to family planning services which includes financial barriers.

He said globally the propor­tion of women of reproductive age who have their needs for family planning satisfied with modern contraception methods had only increased by 10 per­centage points since 1990.

The Country Representative for UNFPA was of the view that it was time women take full con­trol of their sexual health saying that it called for a concerted effort from all.

“Women, men, Health work­ers, Religious and traditional leaders, the government and its agencies, the private sector de­velopment partners, the media and in deed everybody, we all need to embrace and also make sure that our girls in particular and our women are empow­ered through family planning for their health, economic and social benefits,” he said.

 By Jemima Esinam Kuatsinu