Stakeholders advocate improved access to sexual reproductive services for women
By Jide Idowu
Stakeholders have called for improved access to Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHRs) among women and girls in the country.
They made the call at a two-day stakeholders strategic meeting on promoting advocacy and access to SRHRs on Monday in Osogbo.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the programme was organised by an NGO, Olabode Youth and Women Initiatives (OYAWIN), in partnership with Amplifying Change.
The stakeholders emphasised the need to remove barriers and stigma impeding free access to comprehensive sexual education, contraception and maternal healthcare among women and girls in the country.
Mr Moroof Olabode, the Executive Director of the NGO, said that the group had been engaging state actors and non-state actors to tackle obstacles facing young girls and women in accessing SRHRs, safe abortion and bodily autonomy as specified by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Olabode added that it was on this premise that the NGO was advocating improved access to SRHRs, which include right to life, liberty, healthcare and security of women and girls in the society.
He said that “discrimination in allocation of resources to health services, as well as its availability and accessibility for women must be discouraged.
“The state of access to SRHRs in Nigeria is still below internationally acceptable standards and government efforts aimed at improving it is low.
“Achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 3 and 5 clearly requires women to have unhindered access to contraceptive choices that are affordable and acceptable.
In his remarks, Dr Adeniran Adeniyi, the Secretary of the Western Sector of Society of Gynaecology and Obstetrics of Nigeria (SOGON), said there was urgent need for awareness against abortion in the country.
Adeniyi noted that abortion is illegal in the country.
Mr Olusola Olufemi, a health consultant who spoke on advocacy promotion toward improving women’s SRHRs, stressed the need to ensure comprehensive health services for women.
Representatives of the state’s ministries of health, justice, education, association of women lawyers, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Federation of Muslim Women’s Association of Nigeria (FOMWAN), as well as community leaders also called for improved SRHRs for women in the state and the country at large.(NAN)(www.nannews.ng)
Edited by Victor Adeoti/Hadiza Mohammed-Aliyu
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