Yinka Kolawole in Osogbo
Hacey Health Initiative yesterday noted that a staggering 4.3 billion people lack essential sexual and reproductive health right intervention services in sub-Saharan Africa.
Hacey also opined that over 200 million women in developing countries equally lacked access to modern contraception.
Speaking yesterday at a stakeholders’ roundtable meeting in Osogbo, the Osun State capital, on the theme: ‘Building movements to sustain sexual and reproductive health and right interventions’, the Hacey Programme Manager, Oluwatomi Olunuga, stressed that sexual and reproductive health (SRH) issues posed a significant challenges for vulnerable adolescents and young people (AYPs) in developing countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.
She remarked that two- thirds of illnesses among women of reproductive age in the region are attributed to (SRH) problems.
Olunuga emphasised that vulnerable AYPs in the project communities due to lack of access to essential sexual and reproductive health information and resources are predisposed to challenges such as unintended pregnancies, inadequate antenatal care, unsafe abortions, sexually transmitted infections, HIV, and cervical cancer.
Also speaking at the event, the Hacey Programme Officer, Tomilola Oni, said the early pregnancies among adolescents, high prevalence of HIV infections and vulnerability to others SRH issues underscore the urgent needs for intervention.
She also remarked that in sub-Saharan Africa, where the majority of the world’s poor reside, two-thirds of illnesses among women of reproductive age stem from SRH problems.
Oni stressed that limited access to SRH information in Nigeria puts AYPs at risk, exposing them to various SRH challenges that threatened their well-being.
She made it cleared that Hacey would empower 80 percent of adolescents and young people across project communities in Nigeria with improved access to rights-based, inclusive, and gender- sensitive sexual and reproductive health right services.
The communities where projects would be executed are on five states in the Southwest Nigeria which include Lagos, Osun, Ekiti, Oyo, and Ondo.
The programme officer, however, made it known that the project objectives include to establish and strengthen a network of 150 Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) with tools, skills, and resources for effective SRHR intervention across five states in southwest Nigeria.
Other objectives include increase access to SRHR resources, information, and services among 5,000 adolescents and young people in Southwest as well as to strengthen existing youth amplify SRHR champions in tertiary Institutions with resources to design and implement human- centred, equitable, and gender-sensitive SRHR interventions for AYPs.
