Kenya has been handed a major boost in making family planning more accessible to women in the country after receiving 450,000 doses of contraceptives.
According to a press statement to newsrooms on Thursday, May 16, the 450,000 doses of Subcutaneous Depot Medroxyprogesterone Acetate (DMPA-SC) are a self-injectable contraceptive.
The contraceptives were procured by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) with more than 57 Million Kenya Shillings (£348,000) funding from the UK Government, and will be distributed by the Ministry of Health to health facilities across the country.
DMPA-SC is a user-friendly injectable contraceptive that can be administered by trained individuals, including community health workers and women themselves.
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“The integration of DMPA-SC self-injection into Kenya's reproductive health landscape is part of broader reproductive health self-care initiatives aimed at improving service delivery. These will support the Government’s efforts to increase access to family planning in line with global trends toward self-care interventions," Ag. Director General of Health Dr. Patrick Amoth said While receiving the supplies at the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (KEMSA) warehouse in Nairobi.
Kenya has made significant progress in promoting access to family planning, with the modern contraceptive prevalence rate rising to 57% in 2022, up from 53% in 2014.
During the same period, the unmet need for family planning was reduced from 18% to 14%. Despite this progress, barriers such as the high financial cost of access and uncertainty over supply hinder efforts to meet the demand for family planning.
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