Malawi commits to better family planning for youth
MALAWI has committed to ensuring universal access and coverage of sexual reproductive health and rights information and services, with specific focus on adolescents and young people.
Health Secretary, Dan Namarika, made the commitment on behalf at the Family Planning Summit in London, United Kingdom (UK).
According to a statement released by summit organisers, the aim of the meeting is for countries to make bold commitments that will help expand access to family planning to millions of women and girls worldwide.
According to the statement, Malawi committed to expand method mix choice including long-acting contraceptive methods with the goal of “no parenthood before adulthood”.
Malawi is further committed to reducing teenage pregnancies by 5 percent per year through 2030, in line with the Health Sector Strategic Plan II (2017 -2021) targets.
Namar ika said Malawi aims to end child and forced marriages and to ensure that girls complete their secondary education.
Additionally, Malawi is committed to increasing the budgetary allocation for family planning commodities and youths programming.
He said Malawi is expected to involve all key government sectors, CSOs , NGOs, parliamentarians, traditional leaders, parents and, most importantly, the youth through a robust multi-sectoral approach to achieve a reduction in fertility paramount to Malawi’s development.
Malawi has over 358,000 married and sexually active adolescents (ages 15-19), 34 percent of whom have an unmet need for contraception.
At the summit, more than 60 governments and partners are expected to collectively announce at least $2.5 billion in funding with focus on better serving largest generation of adolescents in history and the hardest-to-reach women and girls.
At least 37 countries, 16 private companies and 11 partner organisations, including civil society and private foundations, will announce commitments to accelerate progress on rights-based family planning programmes today at the Family Planning Summit.
The Family Planning Summit is co-hosted by the UK Government, UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in close partnership with the Family Planning 2020 Secretariat
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