18/12/2023
THE NATIONAL YOUTH AND ADOLESCENT FAMILY PLANNING AND SEXUAL REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH CONFERENCE ENDS IN FREETOWN
By Amb Mohamed Jaward
Vanilla Complex, Aberdeen, Freetown, Friday, 15th December, 2023➖In a bid to provide young people an opportunity to discuss their issues around access to family planning services, Health Alert Sierra Leone, a national civil society organization that was established in 2009 and specialized in health advocacy and accountability programming, with funding support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
has on Friday, 15th December, 2023 ended a two-day National Youth and Adolescents Family Planning and Sexual Reproductive Health Conference at Vanilla Complex, Aberdeen, Freetown.
This year's conference was with the theme, *"Investing in our future"* leaving no one behind and was well attended by over 100 youths and adolescents, drawn from the 16 provincial districts of Sierra Leone.
Giving an overview of the summit, Mohamed Awuah Kamara, the Advocacy and Communications Officer of Health Alert Sierra Leone revealed that, the 3rd edition of Family Planning Conference provided young people an increased knowledge on family planning and also gave policymakers opportunity to directly hear from beneficiaries on policies affecting their sexual reproductive health and rights including sexual violence and r**e.
Making a statement, the Technical Lead of the Momentum Country and Global Leadership Project who doubles as the Country Director of Jiphego, Md. Baindu Kosia said, she was happy to see young people developing adolescents and youth centered commitments that will inform Sierra Leone's FP2030 Commitments.
She reaffirmed MCGL's commitments in providing equitable access to quality healthcare and expressed thanked to the United States Agency for International Development for their unwavering support to Sierra Leone.
Taking participants through the FP2030 Commitments, Dr. Frances Moses, the Programme Manager, Reproductive and Child Health and Family Planning at the Ministry of Health, in his PowerPoint presentation said, FP2030 Commitments are pledges to take specific actions to increase the use of voluntary, rights-based contraception.
He furthered that, in May this year, the Honorable Minister of Health, Dr. Austin Dembey, signed the FP2030 Commitments on behalf of the people of Sierra Leone, highlighting that, the Costed Implementation Plan main goal is to increase on the Modern Contraceptives Prevalence Rate by 32.0 by 2027.
Moses said, they envision Sierra Leone where everyone is empowered to make informed choices, has affordable and equitable access to quality, rights-based family planning and Sexual Reproductive Health and fully capacitated to participate in national development, leaving no one behind.
*"The purpose of the commitments is to connect commitment makers to global community of leaders, adolescents and implementers and promotes cross sectoral connections and partnership, boost visibility and also to foster accountability and transparency"*. He added.
He highlighted the objectives of the FP2030 Commitments, maintaining, improved policy and legal environment, increased access to quality family planning services, strengthened supply chain, transformed social and gender norms and the financial objectives are what they are working towards.
Speaking during the meeting, Mr Victor Lansana Koroma, the Executive Director of Health Alert said, the conference on family planning is for young people to develop a clear roadmap on how adolescent and youths will independently monitor the FP2030 commitments and how to achieve or meet some of the indicators or targets that would be set in the country's work plan.
He urged participants to take the conference with seriousness and cascade the knowledge they've gained to their colleague youths and adolescents.
Introducing the Motion Tracker Approach, a global tool that is used by civil society organizations to monitor and track countries commitments, Dalton John, the Programs Manager of Health Alert Sierra Leone disclosed that, after the development and launched of the commitments, countries will first identify and deconstruct the commitments, develop progress indicator, validate meeting and stakeholders mapping, media training and engagement, and track progress and accountability.
He continued that, they should target engagement to celebrate success and address challenges.
Launching of adolescent and youth abridged version of the FP2030 Commitments, Whiteboard Session, Debunking Myths and Misconceptions on Family Planning, Hackathon challenge, Adolescent and Youth Promotion of Comprehensive Sexuality Education, Smart Advocacy, Mi Bodi Nar Mi Ryt App, Sexually Transmitted Infection and HIV formed parts of the conference.
Presentation on the four challenges with Kambia taking the first position and exhibition of gifts climaxed the program.
The End
