Uganda to miss its 2020 family planning target

According to the National Regulation Council, Uganda will miss its 2020 target for implementing a costed national plan for family planning.

Dr. Betty Nakazzi,the director for family health at the National Population Council said the target to have more women use modern contraceptive methods will not be attained.

She made the remarks during the third Family Planning conference that opened on Thursday in Kampala.

Health experts and members of parliament, youth and people living with disabilities were some of the people  who attended the two day conference.

“There are lots of disparities across the region. There are so many inequalities in term of family planning sexual reproductive ,health issues that are failing this country,” she said.

The key note speaker, Prof. Augustus Nuwagaba, noted that family planning is a key factor in controlling population however Uganda will not control its population growth tendencies if citizens are not assured of a better quality of life.

“Mothers can only produce children when they know that the children that have been produced are going to survive,"he said.

He said that lack of investments in the population is a time bomb for any country.

“If you fail to deal with poverty very effectively then the poverty in urban centres is going to deal with you destructively and that is the reason why we have murders, kidnaps in the country,” he said.

He warned parents against having many children whom they can not afford to take care of.

The speaker of parliament Rebecca Kadaga said leaders have a big task ahead of them to change the mindsets of those who believe in many children.

She said it is not okay to give birth to many children when one cannot provide them with basic needs.