BUJUMBURA, May 21st (ABP) – The Ministry of Public Health and the Fight against AIDS, through the National Reproductive Health Programme (PNSR) and in collaboration with the NGO DKT International, organised on Friday 17 May the official launch of the programme of activities of the NGO called DKT International in Burundi, which is helping to fill the gap linked to the creation of demand and supply of family planning services at community level through its innovative strategies, ABP noted on site.
Dr Isidore Ntiharirizwa, the delegate of the Minister of Public Health and the Fight against AIDS, who represented the Ministry at the event, explained that the programme aims to help reduce maternal mortality and improve the health of adolescents and young people in Burundi. He pointed out that one of the objectives of the vision of Burundi as an emerging country by 2040 and a developed country by 2060 is to achieve a modern contraceptive use rate of 60% by 2040 and 85% by 2060. He also pointed out that, according to the latest demographic and health surveys of 2010 and 2016-2017, the maternal mortality rate has fallen from 500 to 334 deaths per 100,000 live births, and the contraceptive prevalence rate among couples in union has risen from 23% to 29%, according to the same source.
Dr Ntiharirizwa pointed out that Burundi had signed up to commitments under Family Planning 2030 to reposition family planning as one of the ways of coping with the effects of a galloping demography and improving the living conditions of women and children in our country.
He also pointed out that improving maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health has always been a priority for the Burundian government. The 2021-2027 health sector strategy, aligned with Burundi’s National Development Plan 2018-2027, places the health and well-being of the Burundians at the heart of development.
According to him, the ministry in charge of public health has welcomed the interventions of its development partners because, he said, their technical and financial support, in addition to that of the government, is helping to implement action plans for the well-being of the Burundians.
He announced that a new partner, DKT International, was following in their footsteps, helping them to take a further step towards achieving the government’s objective. Dr Ntiharirizwa welcomed DKT International.
For his part, the Director General of PNSR, Dr Ananie Ndacayisaba, said that DKT International was starting a new chapter in social marketing in Burundi, in partnership with the Ministry of Public Health and the Fight against AIDS. The aim of this collaboration is to increase demand for sexual and reproductive health care and services, broaden the range of products to give individuals and couples more choice, while strengthening the health system and improving the quality of services provided by trained health professionals and community workers.
According to him, the NGO DKT international is committed to coming up with an innovative approach to providing SRH/FP (Sexual and Reproductive Health/Family Planning) services in Burundi, and their efforts will contribute to achieving national and global sexual and reproductive health goals. Its interventions will contribute to the achievement of the consortium’s objectives, by making SRH services more accessible and adapted to the needs of women and girls, he added.
The new NGO will work in the provinces of Gitega, Bujumbura-mairie, Kayanza, Ngozi and Kirundo.