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Tanzania’s
government has ordered a US aid organisation to cease advertising
family planning services in the country’s media “with immediate effect”,
news agency Reuters reports.
Health Permanent Secretary Mpoki Ulisubisya told the organisation, FHI 360, to implement the order immediately.
“I
request you to stop with immediate effect airing and publishing any
family planning contents in any media channels, until further notice,” Ulisubisya said in a letter dated 19 September.
Reuters news agency reports that it had sought a comment from the organisation but it had not heard back.
The
development comes after President John Magufuli said on September 9
that women should stop using contraceptives because Tanzania needed more
people.
More on this: Magufuli condemns birth control, says its for lazy people
Opposition MP Cecil Mwambe criticised the comments, saying they contradicted the country’s health policy.
Magufuli made similar comments in 2016.
After
the launch of free primary and secondary education, he said: “Women can
now throw away their contraceptives. Education is now free.”
Tanzania has a population of around 53 million people, with 49% of them living on less than $2 (Sh201) a day.
On average, a woman in Tanzania has more than five children, among the highest rates in the world.
He has proposed several controversial policies since he was elected in 2015.
Last year he proposed that pregnant schoolgirls be blocked from resuming their education after giving birth.
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