The Nasarawa state Commissioner for Health, Ahmed Baba Yahaha, has said government is putting in place necessary strategies through community engagement to enhance the utilisation of family planning in rural communities.
He stated this at the media round table organised by Media Action for Family Planning in Nasarawa state, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and supported by Development Communication (DevComm) and The Challenge Initiative Nigeria (TCI).
The commissioner, who was represented by the Director, Primary Health Care, Nasarawa state Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPCDA), Dr Madawa Absalom, said using community engagement as a strategy to increase demand and utilisation of childbirth spacing campaign in the rural communities would give better result in addressing the issue of maternal mortality.
He said with the community engagement, people will get to know and acquire things that could improve the healthcare need of the community and its people.
“As social mobilisation department at the agency, we are working round the clock to engage our communities, sensitise our traditional institutions from the state down to local governments so that everybody in the state will be aware of the services and also utilise the services for the interest of our communities and the state at large,” he stated.
Traditional and religious leaders also shared their experiences during the roundtable in their support to achieving effective utilisation and uptake of family planning services at the rural communities.