Civil society organizations are increasingly advocating for proper budgetary allocation of contraceptives as a pressing requirement for keeping girls in school, given that teenage pregnancy and school dropout rates are still high in Liberia.
Given how important contraceptives are to women and girls, the US$20,000 currently allocated to family planning and contraception under the Ministry of Health budget is insignificant.
The Initiative for Women and Youth Empowerment’s (IWYE) Executive Director, Musu Davis, said, “We think the money is very little and there’s a need for it to be increased even up to US$50,000 or $100,000.”
She added, “We hope that in the next two years of the project, there will be a reduction in teenage pregnancy, an increment in the budget of the Ministry, and lawmakers can join forces with them on the issue.”
IWYE, formerly known as Girls for Literacy Inc., is a legitimately recognized non-governmental organization that is not for profit. IWYE Inc., was founded in 2015 and has since been actively implementing programs and projects aimed at empowering women, youth, and girls, as well as advocating for and raising awareness of health-related issues like teenage/adolescent pregnancy, family planning, and contraceptives, among others.
IWYE has collaborated and coordinated activities with regional and global organizations over the years.
To guarantee access for everybody, IWYE has started a new project named “Advancing Call for Contraceptive and Equitable Sexual Reproductive and Health Right (SRHR) Services.” The project’s goal is to boost the Ministry of Health’s funding allocation for family planning.
She maintained that the project is designed to tackle issues affecting adolescent girls’ access to contraceptives in rural and urban Liberia, including the low budgetary support from the National Government to the Ministry of Health.
Madam Davis stressed, “Today’s event which is focused on family planning, budget review and analysis, is one of IWYE’s many planned actions with the national government and relevant stakeholders through responsible dialogue. Today’s activity is also one of the many meetings that we will be hosting with CSOs and service providers for contraceptives and the Government of Liberia, but we are working directly with the Ministry of Health and Planned Parenthood Association of Liberia, and when it comes to CSOs, we have the community healthcare initiative, DKD-Liberia, and few other CBOS.”
The decision to raise advocacy around contraceptives, according to Davis, was the result of the alarming number of girls dropping out of school due to pregnancy-related issues.
“I am a mentor to so many girls, especially teaching at Tubman High and seeing them dropping, and even in my community, many times you will see this girl is in uniform today the next day she’s sitting home because she’s pregnant, that’s when the thought of the project came to enhance the call for contraceptives; let it be accessible for all girls and young women so they cannot be school dropouts, and also for poverty reduction, and that’s why we decided to expand our activities so that women and youth can benefit,” she said.
As it relates to the project, Davis said “We will be having advocacy and consultative meetings in Montserrado and Bomi Counties, working with health centers and hospitals and women and stakeholders to publicize our advocacy to hear our cry. It is a two-year project and we will also be working with the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, and lawmakers.”
“This gathering is taking place at a time when the new Public Health Law to ensure access to sexual and reproductive health services is being debated, and at the time 38,779 women and girls have fallen prey to induced abortions in 2021, according to a 2023 report released by the Ministry of Health (MoH) in partnership with the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), the Africa Population and Health Research Center (APHRC), and Guttmacher. This translates to an induced abortion rate of 30.7 per 1,000 women of reproductive age, and an induced abortion ratio of 229 abortions per 1,000 live births,” she said.
She said there is no doubt that contraception is an essential part of sexual and reproductive health care, and rural Liberian populations must have access to it because contraceptives address a wide range of health issues beyond pregnancy prevention, access to them is important for all women and girls.
“Teenagers should have access to support and information on contraception that is developmentally appropriate, culturally competent, impartial, and factual from a medical standpoint.
She continued, “We believe that teaching girls about contraception and its effects and preventive measures should be a priority in our educational system. Let’s band together in our inadequate ways to support this justifiable expense for women and girls in our society as the organization launches its project named “Access for All,” which is primarily focused on expanding access to contraceptives for teenage girls living in rural and urban Liberia.”
