A high-level advocacy workshop held in Ethiopia ahead of the upcoming Family Planning Summit in London heard that one in four married women in Ethiopia has an unmet need for family planning.
The workshop aimed to build momentum to meet Ethiopia’s unmet need in Family Planning. It was also a timely event to generate Ethiopia’s input for the Summit, said State Minister of Health Dr. Keseteberhan Admasu.
Shortcomings in family planning in Ethiopia were highlighted by Genet Mengistu, Director of the Population Affairs Directorate with the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development.
“Though remarkable progress has been made in recent years in improving access to reproductive health services, including family planning, the unmet need is still high as one in four currently married women has an unmet need,” she said.
The forthcoming Family Planning Summit on 11 July has been organized by the UK Government and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, with support by UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund and other partners.
The workshop participants deliberated on the achievements made to date in Ethiopia, challenges to improving access to family planning, the high unmet need in the country, and how to ensure universal access to reproductive health services.
The Ethiopian Government held a strong conviction that meeting the unmet need for family planning would substantially reduce maternal deaths and injuries, and it was exerting considerable effort to increase the use of modern family planning methods, Ms. Mengistu said.
UNFPA Country Representative, Benoit Kalasa, said the workshop was “a forum to discuss the challenges and opportunities in meeting the unmet need and foster partnerships to improve access to family planning, address the very high unmet need, and ensure universal access to reproductive health services.”
The participants made presentations and deliberated on the theme of World Population Day on 11 July, ‘Universal access to reproductive health services’. The event was attended by senior Government officials and representatives of donors, diplomatic corps, UN agencies and civil society organizations.
