September was a busy month for UNFPA and our partners. As the lead UN agency for young people, UNFPA leveraged traditional haus man/meri platforms as spaces for intergenerational exchanges. The Youth Dialogue held with the provincial government in Alotau, Milne Bay Province, revealed leverage points for progress (health, education, and jobs) and showed clearly that trust-building involving law and order, together with mutual responsibility for the future were takeaways to guide our work into the next country program.
The health system in PNG is critical in to the Government’s development goals and it is also an entry point to build trust with the public. In the Momase Region, UNFPA conducted a Reproductive Health Commodity Supply Chain training under our DFAT-funded C-Surge program. This is part of a comprehensive strategy for health sector capacity building involving many more partners. For example, for a decade DFAT has been supporting the roll-out of a Health Information Management System which this week was extended across the Information Management System which this week was extended across the country (congrats to colleague for that!), and UNFPA’s work to build capacity on M-Supply, the Logistics Information Management System, is a part of this. Our best advocates for that system will be the health workers themselves. When they see the results of our collective efforts, we are one step closer to delivering a health system that leaves no-one behind.
This leads to an important day observed annually on the 26th of September, World Contraception Day. UNFPA works to deliver a world with zero unmet need for family planning. We use “family planning” a lot because there is a hesitancy to speak of “sexual and reproductive health”. But when we shy away from candid conservations, we miss opportunities to protect vulnerable population and, in some cases, also save lives. Our mission requires us to have the courage to challenge social norms and behaviors that are harmful to people. Usually when we create opportunities for dialogue, we discover that people are not opposed to contraception per se, but that both men and women are confused about who has a right to use them, how to use them, and what choices they have, and there is too much stigma attached to the use of condoms. It’s been a decade since PNG held a national condom campaign, STIs and HIV are on the rise PNG. Too many people living with HIV prefer not to know their status and do not access drugs that can suppress the infection.
As a result, we have more children born with HIV. In a world with 1 million new sexually transmitted infections identified daily, we must break away from the idea that condoms are only for sex workers or other key populations. We must find entry points for discussion about how we manage our intimate relationships- emotionally and physically. That’s why we are excited for our upcoming event “Condomize!” Together with NDOH, National Aids Council, UNAIDs and the Global Fund and CSO partners we’re going to relaunch the conversation that saves lives.