Department of Health

2016 Breastfeeding and Family Planning Forum

The Pearl Manila Hotel

29 September 2016

 

Theme:

Breastfeeding and Family Planning: 

Keys to Sustainable Development

Honorable NEDA Secretary Ernesto Pernia

Honorable DOH Under Secretary Gerry Bayugo, Director Enrique Tayag

Colleagues from the United Nations: Gundo Weiler (WHO), Lotta Sylwander (UNICEF), Robert Rosadia (World Bank)

RPRH NIT Chairperson Dr. Esperanza Cabral 

Colleagues from the Civil Society: ARUGAAN, LIKHAAN 

Partners from DOH Regional Offices, Local Government Units and the Media

Friends—

Good morning!

First, I wish to congratulate the Department of Health on the occasion of its 2016 Breastfeeding and Family Planning Forum, and for bringing us all together to drive forward our vision of universal health care and of maternal and child health.

Last week, our team met Gillian in Mindanao. Gillian is a 25 year old mother of one from the Dibabawon Indigenous group.  She is five months pregnant with her second child. 

Thanks to a new birthing facility and a community health programme, she won’t be forced to make a long and arduous journey to ensure a safe birth this time around. 

With quality services nearby, she is far less likely to die related to childbirth.

After her first child, in consultation with the new community care workers in her area, Gillian decided to wait before having a second child. 

She wanted to earn a little extra money to add to her husband’s income as a labourer nearby. 

And her son recently started at the local school, and she wants him to go all the way to university, if that’s what he wants.

So she thought that by getting work, and more experience, she could help make sure her kids can go all way, and enjoy more advantages than she had.

Multiply Gillian’s story by millions across the country, and you will soon have a skilled set of graduates to power the economy of the future.  

If  today’s and tomorrow’s young people are given good advice and quality services, they will avoid the pitfalls of early pregnancy, early marriage and sexually transmitted infections, and propel the country to greater prosperity.

If their rights, choices and opportunities are respected and granted, we will go a long way to bring the vision of the Sustainable Development Goals into reality by 2030.

*****

We’ve seen some significant health gains in the Philippines in recent years - rising life expectancies, better health facilities and more, better social and health insurance coverage. 

Yet maternal mortality has remained almost flat over the last 20 years. Too many mothers still die related to childbirth. In 1995 it the ratio was at 122 deaths per 100,000 live births. In 2015 it was at 114.

Most deaths occur during birth, or within the first 24 hours afterwards. Yet contraceptives are also key to bringing down maternal deaths.

According to a John Hopkins University study in 2012, up to 55% of maternal deaths in the Philippines could be averted by contraceptive use.

Yet contraceptive use is stubbornly low. In 2013. The NDHS put modern contraceptive use at 38 percent. 

 

The unmet need for family planning is high, at 18%, and women from the lowest socio-economic levels have the greatest unmet need, at over 21%. 

 

Yet there are positive signs. The Reproductive Health Law was a landmark for the country, and it is superb to see the new administration making the full implementation of the law a cornerstone of its 0 plus 10 point socio-economic agenda.

The Department of Health has laid the foundations for some serious improvements in the family planning programme. More recently the Department of Health, with partners, has also developed its first Costed Implementation Plan for Family Planning for 2017-2020. 

The plan provides a detailed costing of the investments needed for reproductive health commodity security. And more broadly, it should boost efficiency in the family planning programme across all areas.

Yet to reap all these gains, Congress must approve the pre-requisite budget. 

*****

To finish up, I’d just like to say a few words as a dad. 

I have two daughters, aged 11 and 14, so I personally know how hard it can be – for both parents and children – to start talking about sex and relationships.

 

But we have to, because ultimately it’s about their health, safety and wellbeing. 

In the Philippines, far too many teenage girls are getting pregnant – and so put themselves and their babies at risk.

According to the latest Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality Survey almost 23% of 18 year old girls and 35% of 19 year old girls have begun childbearing. Many end up leaving school and giving up on their dreams.

It has been estimated that early childbearing cost the Philippines 33 billion Pesos each year. That is 1.1% of GDP!

Add in the costs of failing to see so many talented young people reach their potential for the country, and the numbers would be astronomical. 

Full implementation of the Comprehensive Sexuality Education, already part of the RPRH law is crucial to tackle this, as well as taking on attitudes and stigma that prevents young people from getting the advice and services they need.

*****

Amid the operational and legal challenges in the full implementation of the RH Law, including the existing Supreme Court TRO on Subdermal Implants, the leadership of the DOH, the National Implementation Team, and the support of RH advocates and civil society organizations, is absolutely critical to making a success of the family planning programme. 

 

As always, UNFPA is on hand to help wherever it can, because as the Philippine Health Agenda says, by all of us working for health we can achieve health for all.

For the millions of mothers like Gillian in Mindanao, who just want their young ones to get the best start in life, and for the millions of young people that are striving to fulfill their potential, it is absolutely vital that they have the knowledge and products they need to plan their futures.

Safer births, and better family planning, helps build a stronger nation. 

 

Maraming salamat po!