Group advocate increased access to child spacing in Kano

The Kano State Advocacy Core Group on Child Birth Spacing (ACG- CBS), a group focused on promoting the health of women and children in the state, especially child birth spacing Wednesday advocated for the creation of an enabling environment for individuals interested in child birth spacing to have access to quality, affordable and voluntary child birth spacing (CBS) services and products in Kano.

The call was made Wednesday by Hussaina Muhammad, the group’s focal person at the general meeting of the ACG – CBS held in Kano adding that the group was planning series of sensitization campaigns at local communities as well as advocacy among policymakers aimed at increasing funding for CBS in the state.

“As part of our next point of action, we have planned activities on CBS to run through 2018/2019 which will consist of series of orientation and advocacy programs at local communities on quarterly basis; courtesy visits to the state assembly and ministry of finance to advocate more funding to CBS as well as a visit to traditional and religious leaders among others, for sensitization and enlightenment,” she said.

The ACG-CBS is made up of stakeholders drawn from varied sectors including government, civil society, academia, media, religious bodies, traditional institutions, and development partners who are volunteering their time and resources to advocate on issues affecting women and child health in Kano state, principally CBS.

Also speaking at the event, Abdullahi Sule, Kano state program coordinator of The Challenge Initiative (TCI) said they were “working with the stakeholders, media, and government departments to secure public funding for CBS services.  In 2017, 10 million naira was allocated for CBS and we were able to push for and secured 15 million naira for CBS in the 2018 budget of Kano state.”

The Challenge Initiative (TCI) is a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation-funded program working in the area of improving access to family planning and childbirth spacing services to women towards achieving Family Planning 2020 across 4 hubs of the world: Kenya, India, Senegal and Nigeria.

TCI facilitated the creation of the Kano State ACG-CBS as part of efforts to accelerate demand-driven participation and build a national family planning movement in Nigeria, as a continuation of the Nigerian Urban Reproductive Health Initiative (NURHI).