Government has been asked to urgently scale up funding for Family Planning (FP) in the country, to prevent needless maternal and neo-natal deaths that result from unplanned pregnancies.

The incorporation of FP services into the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), should also be considered to increase women’s access and uptake of contraceptives.

A policy statement on Family Planning (FP) issued on the side-lines of a media sensitization workshop on family planning uptake in the Ashanti Region, said a renewed government financial commitment of seven million dollars annually, over the next five years will be required to address the current critical challenge of providing FP services to women with unmet needs in addition to soaring up contraceptive uptake.

The statement said the current funding of three million dollars a year to FP for the period of 2012-2015 is woefully inadequate, since the benefits of FP extend far beyond the health sector and a single generation, apart from helping to achieve Millennium Development Goals Four and Five.

Organised jointly by the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and the School of Public health of the College of Health Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), the workshop had the Johns Hopkins University of Public Health, Maryland in the United States, as collaborators, with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

It was held in Kumasi and attracted practitioners across the media landscape in the Ashanti Region, with the aim of sensitizing the press to lead the crusade to encourage higher contraceptive use in both sexes, to stem unplanned pregnancies and their attendant challenges.

Enumerating some of the benefits of FP, the statement quoted a study initiated by the USAID which said one dollar invested in FP in Ghana saves two dollars on other development, areas and these savings would come from reduced costs in maternal health, including deliveries and post natal and infant care.

Added to this, there would also be a reduction in public sector spending for health, water and social services, with minimal pressure on limited financial resources.