Community Mobilisation and Referrals for Strengthening of Family Planning Services at Health Facilities in Underserved Rural Areas

RSPN’s project “Community Mobilisation and Referrals for Strengthening of Family Planning Services at Health Facilities in Underserved Rural Areas” is funded by UNFPA in three districts of Punjab i.e., Rawalpindi, Muzaffargarh, and Rahim Yar Khan. The project is being implemented by National Rural Support Programme (NRSP). This family planning project is working in six Union Councils in each district (18 UCs total) covering 540,000 residents. In these UCs, 270,000 population is covered by Lady Health Workers and 180,000 are uncovered. 

In LHW-covered areas, the project has exclusively designed a Male Engagement Strategy for behaviour change of husbands to create demand and uptake of family planning services. The project aims to establish 24 Husband Schools in each district (72 total schools in all three districts). The Husband Schools are centres that raise awareness regarding the importance and procedures of family planning. They also generate uptake referrals to Basic Health Units (BHUs) and Mobile Health Units (MHUs) of the areas. Each husband’s school is equipped with a coach, counselling cards, and referral registers.

In non-LHW-covered areas, the project focuses on both male and female engagement for creating demand and referrals to health facilities and mobile health units. Female social mobilisers engage with Married Women of Reproductive Age (MWRA) through awareness sessions. They also address refusal cases.

Overall Objective: To contribute in UNFPA’s overall efforts for strengthening family planning services at the health facilities level.

Output 1: Capacity of community institutions and community-level workers improved for community engagement and referrals for family planning services.  

 Output 2: Demand creation and referrals made to health facilities and Mobile Health Units (MHUs) for uptake of family planning services.

Progress indicators:

• Number of Husband’s Schools established for male engagement. Target: 72
• Number of coaches trained and placed at husband schools for male engagement. Target: 72
• Number of MWRAs approached through group meetings. Target: 10,800
• Number of husbands approached for family planning messages through husband schools & male mobilisers. Target: 25,920
• Number of referrals made to health facilities/MHUs for uptake of family planning services Target: 4,536
• Number of MHU camps organised by the Population Welfare Department and supported by mobilisation teams for delivery of services in unserved areas. Target: 108