Bauchi State government in conjunction with an international Non-Governmental Organisation, Health Policy Plus (HP+) have launched a costed plan to implement child spacing in the state.
The plan hopes to give direction to Bauchi’s child spacing programme.
It covers budgeting and interventions in child spacing public health and well being through family planning.
Contraceptive prevalence rate in Bauchi is 2.1%, but that’s expected to grown by 23.54% by next year.
The target has been extended to 2020, but the ambitious target was set for Bauchi because of its medium growth rate for contraceptive prevalence, considering relatively higher than in many north eastern states.
In his speech during the launch, HP+ country director, Onoriode Ezire who was represented by the Bauchi State Policy and Advocacy Team leader, Hajara John, said, "The design of a roadmap is prerequisite for the success of Bauchi State Childbirth Spacing Costed Implementation Plan (CIP). Indeed, Bauchi State has again achieved an unprecedented feat as one of the leading states in the health reformation agenda in the country," he said.
In a keynote address, wife of Bauchi State governor Hadiza Mohammed Abubakar said that Bauchi state has refocused her attention to Family Planning and Child Spacing program because of the poor child spacing performance in the last decades.
"Thus the state deems it necessary to galvanise efforts in developing robust family planning/child spacing strategies that will contribute to improving maternal and child health in the state,” she said in comments delivered by Aliyu Gital, permanent secretary, ministry of health.
