Mash West province place male engagement as a key strategy to meeting the unmet need for family planning
Sexual and or Gender Based Violence almost always rears its ugly head between couples when disagreements and opposition to contraceptive use exist with women at the receiving end. On the other hand family planning programs are always seized with a challenge to reach and serve those women who are sexually active and would prefer to avoid becoming pregnant but nonetheless are not using any method of family planning for one reason or another.
By Ansetus Dongo (ZNFPC Mash West province)
This gap between some women’s reproductive or fertility intentions and their contraceptive behaviour is commonly referred to as the unmet need for family planning. Family planning on the other hand is said to be a couple’s conscious effort to limit or space the number of children they want through the use of contraceptive methods. Mrs Josephine Chitambo the ZNFPC Mashonaland West Acting Provincial Manager highlighted the importance of male involvement while addressing health service providers and stakeholders at a National Aids Council sponsored Male Engagement Strategy Dissemination meeting in Chinhoyi recently. Mrs Chitambo said the most common reasons for this unmet need include opposition from spouses or intimate partners as well as relatives and or significant others. It also includes, lack of knowledge and information on both family planning as well as contraception, fear of the unknown, particularly contraceptive side effects and unsatisfactory services most likely in the form of limited choice of contraceptive methods
“Apparently there is sometimes a huge social cost of challenging the opposition from her spouse or anyone else in her social circles. The woman may suffer rejection, physical abuse and other forms of violence being perpetrated on them. The husbands or partners are sometimes opposed to use of contraceptives simply because of their religious beliefs whilst some simply want more and more children even disregarding the woman’s health. Some may not want more children but they have some insecurities within them to the extent of being jealousy about their wives being touched particularly by male service providers and fearing that their wives may thus be unfaithful if protected from pregnancy”.
Mrs Chitambo said that many women have since suffered physical abuse and other forms of violence at the hands of their spouses due to opposition to contraception. Some have been maimed or even murdered, ostracized while some have even been divorced. Those that then go along with the demands of the husband (unwillingly or otherwise) have in some cases done so at the expense of their health and that of the babies they would have given birth to. “It is disturbing to see the kind of violence meted to some women which has seen some of them being maimed and disfigured or even being killed. Whereas those that have been subjected to being baby making machines have ended up being of ill health or have given birth to children who end up being of poor health as well, not to mention those that then eventually die”.
Mrs Chitambo indicated that family planning is of importance to the mother and the child. Hence the need for the engagement of all significant others including their male counterparts. The involvement of males have two pronged effects, that is acceptability as well as reduction of the unmet needs on one hand whilst on the other there is the issue of reducing cases and instances of violence in all its forms. Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council places greater importance to issues of male involvement otherwise also known as male engagement in family planning. It goes without saying that the males play very significant roles when it comes to family planning and contraception choices. Having men on board will ensure that the acceptability and positive uptake of contraception, joint fertility decision making and fewer misunderstandings in the intimate relationship. By having men on board as equal partners in the family planning puzzle the unmet need will eventually be reduced.
Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council is working to address issues of unmet need as enunciated by the National Family Planning Strategy of 2022 – 2026. ZNFPC has thus embarked on an awareness, active engagement campaign for boys and men to get them to understand and eventually have an inbuilt capacity to support family planning and contraception within their own families and community at large. Male Motivators and Family Planning Champions have been identified and are working flat out engaging men from all walks of life to understand and appreciate the complex issues of contraception and family planning. ZNFPC as part of its community mobilization interventions will be rolling out the ‘Moonlight’ dialogues held at night in public places with men (and women) as part of the efforts to get men on board family planning programmes thereby Zimbabwe reaping the intended family planning rewards and benefits.