CIBITOKE April 11th ABP) – As part of the “Multi-stakeholder engagement for family planning in Burundi” project, a meeting to set up a multi-stakeholder space for sexual and reproductive health advocacy, organized by “Twitezimbere with the technical and financial support of the Embassy of the Netherlands, took place on Wednesday, April 5, in the capital of Cibitoke province.
According to project coordinator Mrs. Sonia Akimana, it is a multisectoral committee, made up of officials from the public and private sectors, religious denominations, civil society and the media, with the aim of discussing the causes and family planning non-adherence solutions.
For Mrs. Akimana, the multi-actor space has the responsibility to ensure that everyone, without discrimination, has access to a full range of sexual and reproductive health care. She added that the space has the role of ensuring that reproductive health services are available, accessible, acceptable and of good quality.
For that, she said, the stakeholders are significantly committed to analyzing the obstacles to sexual and reproductive health and proposing adequate solutions.
Speaking, Cibitoke provincial doctor, Dr. Jean Claude Habiyaremye, revealed that the state of adherence to family planning is very low in this province, noting that the fertility rate at the national level is 5.5 children. per woman, while there are nine children per woman in Cibitoke province, while the annual growth rate is 2.4.
According to Dr. Habiyaremye, the rate of adherence to family planning methods is 1.4%, and that in general, women who adhere to family planning methods stand at 25.6%. Some churches in Cibitoke province constitute barriers to family planning, even declaring that adhering to contraceptive methods is a peach, the provincial doctor lamented, while suggesting that it is also a peach to give birth to children. who are going to starve. Among the causes of non-adherence to family planning listed by the participants is insufficient information on the subject, religious beliefs, rumours, ignorance of the population, SGBV, low level of education and so on.
Solutions have been proposed such as various awareness-raising activities, the restrictive policy of education for all, devoting sufficient time to explaining the advantages and disadvantages of contraceptive methods, respecting the age of marriage and if possible advancing it to 25 years for boys as well as girls and so on.
The chief of staff of the governor of Cibitoke province, Mr. Anicet Saïdi, for his part asked for the contribution of all the actors of multiple sectors, so that the population effectively adheres to family planning, and thus succeed in food security and Sustainable development.