The Federal Government has commended the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) for providing technical support to Nigeria on family planning and reproductive health.
The Minister of National Planning and Budget, Udoma Udo Udoma, gave the commendation while declaring open the UNFPA 2015 Annual Review and 2016 Development meeting on Monday in Abuja.
Represented by Mr. Sanjo Faniran, the Director, International Corporation, National Planning Commission, Udoma said UNFPA had greatly assisted many health facilities in the country with family planning equipment and had counseled many women in that regard.
He said that the Fund had also counseled women across the country on reproductive health and had empowered many more to make them self-reliant and help their families.
He appreciated UNFPA’s Implementing Partners (IPs) for collaborating with the fund in implementing programmes that had impacted positively on the lives of many women and their families.
On his part, the UNFPA Deputy Country Representative, Mr Koffi Kouame, also urged the IPs to help the Fund with result-based reports during the meeting.
He said this would enable the organisation to evolve more programmes that would positively impact on the lives of Nigerians in coming years.
He urged the IPs to buckle up to the new funding challenges as international donors withdrew 70 per cent of their contributions to UNFPA and other international organisations implementing programmes such as family planning, reproductive health and girl-child education globally.