From Majalisa to Households: MSI Nigeria is Advancing Child Spacing Awareness in Kano

Mahdi Garba and Kenneth Ibe (Lead writers)

Kano State has one of the highest fertility rates in Nigeria, at about 5.8 births per woman, nearly three times the global average of 2.2. The state records roughly 1,000 births every day, contributing to rapid population growth and placing increased pressure on health facilities and Nigeria’s fragile economy.

Family planning needs in Kano remain largely unmet due to limited access and low awareness, with a modern contraceptive prevalence rate (mCPR) of just 10.6% among women aged 15 to 49. While this represents significant progress from the 2018 mCPR at 5%, much more needs to be done to ensure access and coverage for those people who need it most.

Child spacing, the practice of timing pregnancies to allow adequate intervals between births remains poorly understood in Kano. While challenges like cultural misconceptions, inadequate access to contraceptives, stockouts of family planning commodities, and shortage of trained healthcare personnel persist, most conversations about child spacing focus primarily on women and exclude men. This exclusion makes awareness efforts and messaging incomplete, as family planning decisions often require support and agreement from both partners.

To address this gap, MSI Nigeria Reproductive Choices, a leading provider of sexual and reproductive health care services working to ensure every child is born by choice, not by chance, actively involves men in discussions about child spacing and contraceptive use across communities in Kano State. Operating in Nigeria since 2009, MSI Nigeria recognises that sustainable behaviour change in family planning requires engaging both women and men, as reproductive decisions are often made jointly within households.

Engaging men and women at once

One of the strategies MSI Nigeria introduced to reach and include men in family planning discussions is through Majalisa — a traditional Hausa social space where men usually gather to discuss politics, business, and family.

Through these social gatherings, MSI engages men in Kano communities to provide information on child spacing. During these gatherings, MSI staff speak to men in Hausa about the benefits and methods of child spacing and distribute leaflets that explain the available options.

According to Aminu Umar, a 28-year-old resident in Rano Local Government Area (LGA) who has frequently visited these male gatherings for close to six years, “today’s world with many social ills, child spacing offers the chance to train children properly without being overburdened.”
“We keep creating awareness about the importance of child spacing,” the father of two explained.

Ibrahim Turaki Aliyu, a tailor whose shop is situated around one of the Majalisa in Rano Local Government Area (LGA) of Kano State explained that “when we discuss child spacing, some people say that it will help them economically because life is hard now. Everything is expensive. It [family planning] brings succour to [families] and, that is when they [Majalisa members] would ask questions about the child spacing methods and how to access these services.”

For women, MSI Nigeria engages them through MS Ladies, community-based healthcare providers who deliver door-to-door family planning services from their own homes to women in their communities, including hard-to-reach areas.

According to MSI Nigeria, the initiative started with 25 MS Ladies in Kano and has now been scaled to 100. Currently, there are a total of 312 trained and certified MS Ladies spread across Nigeria.
Hajiya Ado Rano, who has volunteered as an MS Lady for at least four years, observed that she does in-reach engagements twice every month. These types of engagement entails going to communities that are far from the city. She stated that each month she reaches about 120 to 130 women within communities.

“Since many of the communities we serve are hard-to-reach areas, if we say some of the women should come to town and collect these contraceptives, they cannot because the cost of transportation is too expensive. So, when it is time for the in-reach, I charter a tricycle and go to these communities,” the MS lady explained.

She added that all MSI Ladies work with client record forms, that are completed by every woman who has accessed any of the child spacing commodities from them. The form has a physical and digital version to ensure data is saved.

However, she complained that some people spread false information about child spacing in their communities and cited the stockout of commodities as another challenge they face. In a month, she gets a request of about 40 Intrauterine Device (IUDs), which exceeds the 10 or 15 she receives.

Shamsiyya Malam, a resident of Wudil LGA, recalled that she heard about child spacing after she gave birth to her third child. “I have used an implant for five years. When it was removed, I rested for one year then switched to the injectable one,” the mother of four explained. She now calls on other women in her community to adopt any suitable child spacing method because “when one gives birth to many children, it is often difficult to [take care of] them.”

According to Abdullahi Isa, MSI Nigeria’s Social Norms Advisor, “MSI Nigeria works collaboratively with the government to strengthen the health system through training of [contraceptive] providers on long-acting methods of family planning.”

Isa also shared that under their Public Sector Strengthening (PSS), they have supported 2,780 public health facilities. Through MSI Social Marketing, Isa said they ensure the availability of “affordable and high quality” sexual and reproductive health commodities such as Condoms, and Back-Up Emergency Contraceptives.

‘My community should adopt child spacing’

Halima Abdullahi Dankaza, who owns a local restaurant in Rano and volunteers for MSI Nigeria as a community mobiliser also creates awareness about child spacing in her community. “The women welcome it. Some would tell me that their husbands have mentioned it to them [already],” she noted.

Another MSI community mobiliser, Hauwa’u Umar Bello, in Kanyan Utai village of Wudil LGA, pointed out that people have many misconceptions about child spacing in her community. However, when they seek clarification in the right place, these misconceptions are often cleared.

“I call on all women to ask questions about child spacing in the right place in order not to be misguided,” the 19-year-old noted.

Umar, one of the men who learnt about child spacing in his Majalisa, also cited misinformation as a major problem they face in Rano. He noted that some people who are against contraception peddle lies to discourage uptake of contraceptives.

He, however, added that there are a few cases of women who have experienced bleeding and weight loss after they have adopted it and noted that when these side effects are shared with a health worker, they are immediately addressed.