SPEECH DELIVERED BY HON. WYCLIFFE AMBETSA OPARANYA EGH MP, MINISTER OF STATE, FOR PLANNING, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND VISION 2030 DURING THE RELAUNCH OF THE NATIONAL FAMILY PLANNING CAMPAIGN AT THE KENYATTA INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE CENTRE ON 14 TH FEBRUARY 2012.

Distinguished Guests

Ladies and Gentlemen

Today marks another key milestone in our country's history as we re-launch a national family planning campaign aimed at facilitating attainment of Kenya Vision 2030 aspirations. Kenya was the first Sub-Saharan African country to initiate a national family planning programme way back in 1967. The programme was at its peak in the 1980s when it had a strong advocacy component and extensive public awareness creation up to the grassroot level covering the entire country. It was also an all inclusive programme with very strong community approach where Community Based Distributors (CBDs) provided information and services up to household level. The targeted campaigns were mounted through various channels including: public barazas; religious gatherings; TV and radio programmes; and, artists' performances in a variety of forums.

To support the campaigns, the national family planning programme developed and distributed a wide range of Information, Education and Communication (IEC) materials such as posters, calendars, stickers, banners and brochures which had catchy messages on family planning including population and development. Leaders at all levels positively articulated family planning and population issues and urging their constituents to plan their families and embrace small family norm. Development partners also complimented government initiatives by providing substantial technical and financial support to the programme at all levels.

Ladies and Gentlemen

The outcomes of these concerted efforts were: increase in population and family planning knowledge and awareness; and, adoption of family planning as a norm. Results of the Demographic and Heath Surveys of 1989 and 2003 confirm improvement in key population and health indicators. Of special interest is Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR) for all methods among married women aged 15 to 49 years. CPR increased to 33 percent in 1993 up from only 8 percent in 1979. This increased uptake of family planning also resulted into decline in birth rate, family sizes, childhood mortality rates and annual population growth rate during that period. Kenya was able to attain the largest ever recorded drop in the inter-censal population growth rate that was from a high of 3.4 percent in the period 1979-1989 to 2.9 percent in the period 1989-1999. The inter-censal population growth rate has since stagnated at 3.0 percent in the period 1999-2009 as revealed by the results of the 2009 Population Census. This stagnation implies that one million more people are being added into Kenya's population annually. In addition, the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) which had been declining in the 1980s and early 1990s stalled at about 5 children per woman since 1993 despite substantial gains recorded in childhood mortality reduction between 2003 and 2010.

Ladies and Gentlemen;

One of the lessons learnt from our past experience is that improvement in key demographic and health indicators is closely correlated, among other factors, with support to the population and family planning programmes. This support started to dwindle in early 1990s due to emergence of other competing issues that were highly prioritized in the global and national agenda. Among these was the HIV/AIDS pandemic that became a concern requiring all efforts including technical and financial support. This crowded out the then vibrant family planning programme resulting into a situation of diminished resources leading to near collapse of key components specifically the community based distribution and the national family planning campaign. It therefore denied a sizeable number of would be family planning clients access to FP information and services. The Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) undertaken from early 1990s included cost sharing in the provision of health services, freezing employment in the public sector and retrenchment of personnel. These measures further limited access to family planning information and services.

Ladies and Gentlemen;

To address this bad situation, the Government of Kenya re-organized and upgraded in 2004 the National Council for Population and Development (NCPD) into a Semi Autonomous Government Agency (SAGA) so as to enable it undertake effective advocacy and coordination of population programmes. Through its advocacy activities, in collaboration with other ministries and stakeholders, a budget line item was introduced in the Ministry of Health budget in 2005 for family planning commodity security. The budgetary allocation for this item has been growing annually reaching Ksh.580 Million in the 2011/2012 Financial Year. In addition, the Government also doubled the budgetary allocation for NCPD in the 2010/2011 Financial Year to facilitate the necessary re-structuring process of the organization and to provide requisite resources for operations to enable NCPD fulfill its mandate.

The government introduced a number of other measures to speed up the pace of socio-economic development that also impact positively on key demographic and health indicators. Top in the list is the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) which provides funds to all constituencies every financial year to support projects including building, upgrading, and equipping health facilities besides employing health personnel at constituency level. The implementation of the policy on provision of free health services for children aged below five years and subsidized maternal health related services has increased access to maternal and child health services especially for the poor. Successful implementation of the community strategy is expected to further increase access of household members to family planning information and services.

Ladies and Gentlemen;

Studies in Kenya and elsewhere in the developing countries have demonstrated that education and income are important factors in programmes aimed at improving demographic and health indicators. The Government of Kenya introduced free primary and subsidized secondary education in 2003 as well as undertaking heavy investment in the expansion and development of educational infrastructure across the country. A number of positive outcomes have been attained including increased enrolment, transition and retention of both boys and girls in primary and secondary schools. Increased education attainment beyond secondary level especially for women has been observed to be highly correlated with improved socio-economic development indicators including lower fertility and childhood mortality rates across all the regions in Kenya.

Ladies and Gentlemen;

As we look forward towards the year 2030, prospects for successful implementation of Kenya's population and family planning programmes are brighter. To begin with, the New Constitution which was promulgated in the year 2010 has an elaborate section on Bill of Rights where the provision of reproductive health including family planning is enshrined as a basic right. This therefore compels the Central and County Governments to ensure that quality reproductive health services are available to all the citizens who need them.

Second, the Kenyan leadership is also commitment to supporting population and family planning programmes. This is demonstrated by the high level population advocacy meetings that were successfully held in the recent past. The National Leaders' Conference on Population and Development held in November 2010 brought together leaders from walks of life across the country to deliberate on issues of population and its effects on socio-economic development. The Parliamentary Retreat Sessions held in July 2011 re-affirmed the national leaders' commitment that population programmes be given high priority in our national engagement. Leaders are all in agreement that repositioning family planning is the best buy especially during this period when there is world wide economic recession. The Draft Population Policy for National Development which has already submitted to the cabinet Office for review and further direction was fully informed by the views of the leaders and other stakeholders. I therefore call upon the people of Kenya and our development partners to support its implementation once it is approved by parliament.

Ladies and Gentlemen;

The Government of Kenya has a long term development blueprint Kenya Vision 2030 which aims at improving the quality of life for the Kenyan people. This Vision is being implemented in five-year Medium Term Plans the first is for the 2008-2012 period which is about to end . Arrangements are in place to evaluate its performance and to prepare the second Medium Term Plan in readiness for implementation once the country is through with the forth coming general elections. In the Vision 2030 blue print, rapid population growth was identified as one of the major constraints to socio-economic development. No efforts will be spared in our national efforts towards management of population for prosperity and as a critical strategy for freeing the available limited resources for socio-economic development in Kenya.

Ladies and Gentlemen;

About 26 percent of married women of reproductive age in Kenya today have unmet need for family planning. This is one of the factors contributing to the rapid population growth rate. Prevention of unplanned births by use of family planning services is therefore important in tackling this problem of high population growth. Addressing the high unmet need for family planning will also help in providing solution to the problems of high dependency burden; high levels of unemployment especially among the youth; and, increasing pressure on government, communities and individual families to provide for basic needs services during this economic hardship conditions. It will also contribute to the realization of Vision 2030 and international development goals. Internationally it has been recognized that there is need to reposition family planning especially in the developing countries with high fertility, mortality and rapid population growth rates.

Ladies and Gentlemen;

My ministry through NCPD will spearhead this national family planning campaign at both national and county levels. This will entail enhanced use of: the media especially rural media (local FM stations): fork media: social media: community networks: and, other new approaches to sensitize Kenyans on the benefit of family planning. I want to call upon all stakeholders to join us in this noble campaign aimed at making family planning a norm at household and individual level. We appreciate and welcome the support from our development partners the population and family planning programmes in Kenya. We now specifically urge our development partners to support this campaign dubbed “TUJIPANGE” . 

Ladies and Gentlemen;

To signify the re-launch and commencement of the “TUJIPANGE” campaign, I am launching the following:

•  The 2011-2015 Strategic Plan for the National Council for Population and Development together with its logo, corporate colours and webpage  

  •  A Document on National Family Planning Guidelines for Service Providers, by Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation

It is now my pleasure to officially declare the national family planning Campaign dubbed “TUJIPANGE” officially launched.

HAPPY 2012 VALENTINES DAY!!

TUJIPANGE!!

THANK YOU