Exploration of Barriers related to family planning use among pastoralist communities of Ethiopian Somali region, Eastern Ethiopia: Qualitative study.
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Date
2017-12
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Addis Ababa Universty
Abstract
Background: Rapid population growth is a threat to wellbeing in the poorest countries. In Ethiopia there was a dramatic increase in contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) from 8.2% to 36% in 2016. Although such encouraging results have been achieved, there are significant variations among the regions, with very low coverage in the pastoralist regions ranging from 1.5 percent in Somali region to 56 percent in Addis Ababa. No studies in Somali region have qualitatively explored for barriers accessing and utilizing family planning from the pastoralist community perspective. Objectives: The objective of this study was exploring barriers related to family planning use among pastoralist communities of Ethiopian Somali region. Methods: Qualitative inductive content analysis through purposive sampling with maximum variation mixed with snow ball were used to conduct four FGD among married women and their husbands, fifteen KII among programmers, service providers and community chiefs. On top this 6 facility observation were undertaken. Data analysis was done using Open code version 4.02.
Results: Six major themes were emerged during the study:Religion prohibition, socio cultural factors, limited access to family planning services, gender roles and social pressure, myths and misconceptions related to family planning and provider negative attitude affected family planning service uptake. Conclusions: Poor women empowerment and limited male involvement, Religion prohibition, Cultural barriers such as clan leaders influence affected family planning service uptake. Women and girls remain largely marginalized in terms of development and full participation in the health program as a whole family planning in particular which contributes to low service uptake at the household and community levels due to underdevelopment, low literacy and prevailing socio-cultural perceptions.
Recommendations: Massive community mobilization, women empowerement and male involvement through chiefs and religious leaders, Capacity building on family planning program, new service provision modality that will fit to mobile community is crucial to increase family planning service uptake.
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Rapid population growth,family planning