(irin) More people are turning to family planning in Tanzania’s semi-autonomous island of Zanzibar as the government seeks to improve access to reproductive healthcare. Funding, however, remains a challenge. “We have been moving on well in the recent months as the turn-up for family planning by both men and women is impressive. Acquiring enough contraceptives for our clients remains the biggest challenge,” Hanuni Ibrahim Sogora, the director for family planning in Zanzibar’s Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, told IRIN. Health officials say a culture of polygamy and low male contraceptive use has limited the number of women accessing reproductive healthcare services. “The major problem is a lack of male involvement in family planning. For example, if a mother comes to the clinic with her baby, there is no harm if the husband can escort her because whatever information is given is important for both,” Kassim Issa Kirobo of the Zanzibar reproductive health programme, told IRIN. “The men say we are busy looking for a livelihood.” Kirobo, the programme’s behaviour change officer in charge of communication and information, said: “The women may also want to use the [family planning] services but the men have the last word.”
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