Parliament challenges NGOs on youth-friendly services
The Parliamentary Committee on Health and Population has challenged non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working in youth-friendly health services (YFHS) sector to graduate from merely developing policies and start delivering programmes to intended beneficiaries.
Committee chairperson Juliana Lunguzi made the remarks in Lilongwe on Friday when she opened a day-long Women’s Leadership and Accountability for Family Planning (FP) 2020 Commitments in Malawi conference.
She observed that in spite of the combined efforts by government and its cooperating partners, the majority of young people in rural settings still face multiple barriers in accessing sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services and contraceptions to accelerate services at the grassroots level.
“I always feel let down when I see that there is nothing on the ground. There are many players in the youth-friendly health service sector. But if I am to ask how much we have done in reaching the targeted youths at the grassroots with the services, you will find out that there is nothing. We [simply] love talking,” she said.
Lunguzi, who is also Dedza East legislator (Malawi Congress Party-MCP), decried the tendency by government and its cooperating partners to formulate policies without translating into actionable deliverables.
HP+ national director Olive Mtema said her organisation is supporting government to achieve its FP2020 commitments by providing technical support to policy development and implementation.
“We are currently supporting implementation of these policy documents and help with their monitoring,” she said. n
