The Ministry of Health and Population announced on Sunday that the availability of a strategic stock of family planning methods is sufficient for one year. The strategic stock serves 5,925 health units and mobile clinics in addition to university hospitals. The ministry subsidies these kind of methods by about 90% of the original price of the method. Head of Population and Family Planning Sector at the ministry Sahar Al-Sonbati explained that the current balance of mono-hormone pills (Lactevenor) and the hormone compound (MicroGenest) are available in family planning clinics in health units, hospitals, and mobile clinics according to international standards. She noted that the amount of methods they have is sufficient to cover the needs of all governorates, adding that there is a strategic stock of Lactevenor family planning pills for 12 months, and that 9m strips of MicroGenest will be made available soon. This could increase the strategic stock of MicroGenest for the population. Al-Sonbati further explained that there is a strategic stock of copper spirals, Implanon Nxt capsules, and injectable hormone compounds (Mesocept) which is used for birth control. She noted that the ministry seeks to diversify the methods of family planning and introduce modern methods to commensurate with the needs of some cases, especially in some border governorates of tribal nature where beneficiaries can use the methods themselves after the approval of the doctor. Recently, media reports warned of shortage in family planning methods calling upon the Ministry of Health to play its role in providing these important methods. These calls came along with the presidential initiatives for birth control. In May 2018, Egypt's Ministry of Social Solidarity launched the national project for birth control to limit the overpopulation dubbed ‘two is enough', as part of the "Takaful and Karama" project. During his speech before the attendees in the fifth youth conference, President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi said that the population growth is one of the most important challenges that Egypt is facing. He called for birth control, saying that a child or two is enough for each family. The program covers 1.15m women who benefit from the ‘Takaful and Karama' project. It will be funded by the Ministry of Social Solidarity and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Khalid Mogahed, the spokesperson of the ministry of health pointed out that 187 warehouses of family planning methods have been prepared and equipped in 16 governorates nationwide in order to preserve the safety and quality of storage facilities. He stressed that family planning methods are being spent free of charge during the campaigns. Caravans, mobile clinics, and low income villages.
