2018 World Contraception Day: CWIDI calls on young people to speak out to remove barriers.



The world contraception day is commemorated on the 26th of September every year. All stakeholders including civil societies, youth structures, government ministries and young people are encouraged to commemorate and celebrate in order to highlight the health and development of young people especially girls and women of reproductive age. The goal of the world contraception day is to create awareness of all contraceptive methods available and enable young people to make informed choices on their sexual and reproductive health.

It is obvious that the awareness about contraception is high but there is still low usage of contraceptives due to barriers like:

•   Myths and effects of using contraceptives
•   Low awareness of emergency contraceptives.
•   Poor access to information about contraceptives which most times, is given by peer educator, mass media and friends.
•   The patriarchal nature of our society.
•   Inadequate access to sexual and reproductive health services especially for unmarried young people.

All of these reasons contribute to the low use of contraceptives among young people and girls and women of reproductive age. This low usage causes problems for young people especially girls and women. They face such consequences as teenage pregnancy, unsafe abortion and unprotected sex, increased rates of maternal mortality and morbidity, worsening of the health system and increase in the social and economic inequalities.

Family planning and contraceptives use is a key factor to achieve the sustainable development goals. These goals helps to meet relating matters such as education and gender equality particularly for girls and women. The world contraception day is an opportunity to reach out to young people to identify their sexual and reproductive health needs and make recommendations to policy makers to provide family planning programs on a much larger scale. This can be achieved using community oriented approaches and communication programs to clarify myths on the use of contraceptives and understand effects of contraceptive use. All these will help meet the unmet need of contraceptives among adolescents and young people. The world contraception day also provides the opportunity to promote the sexual and reproductive health of young people in a way that contributes to the demographic dividends and national development.

We know and have stated some of these barriers to accessing reproductive health services leading to unmet needs for contraception. We would like to hear from young people on how the accessibility and availability of contraception can be improved as this will help in making recommendations to policymakers. #WCD #WCD2018 #contraception #MyRightMyBody #YouthSexReprodHealth

Written by Concern Women International Development Initiative (CWIDI)

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