PSI-Supported Family Planning Programme in Pakistan

OVERVIEW

RSPN entered into a partnership with Population Services International (PSI) to provide reproductive health services to communities in ten districts of Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). The PSI-Supported Family Planning Programme in Pakistan is a four-year project that aims to create an enabling environment for women, girls and men to avail healthy reproductive choices; increase the availability of family planning services and products in uncovered rural areas, and strengthen accountability through increased transparency and stringent monitoring. RSPN has collaborated with the National Rural Support Programme (NRSP), Punjab Rural Support Programme (PRSP), Sindh Rural Support Organisation (SRSO) to implement this programme in the districts of Jhang, Toba Tek Singh, Rahim Yar Khan, Bahawalpur, Mardan, Swabi, Shikarpur, Jacobabad, QambarShahdadkot and Tando Muhammad Khan. A total uncovered population of 5.7 million people will be targeted to create 433,541 new users of family planning services during programme life.

STRATEGY

Over the next four years, this programme will focus on the community using Community Resource Persons (CRPs), trained local social volunteers who will go door-to-door within their respective catchment areas to refer women to scheduled outreach camps where they may access family planning counselling and services from qualified Family Welfare Workers/Lady Health Visitors. The programme’s objectives include converting young married couples of reproductive age into new users of family planning services, converting users of traditional contraceptive methods to users of modern contraceptive methods as well as the strategic upscaling of ‘Business in a Box’ — a micro-entrepreneurship venture intended to help make contraceptives sustainably accessible.

EXPECTED OUTPUTS

These interventions are expected to result in:

• The community-wide sensitisation of men, women and adolescents on reproductive health issues through disseminating information on family planning services;
• The creation of Village Health Committees (VHCs) to represent the entire community and bring behavioural change through demand creation for birth spacing;
• Women empowerment through the ‘Business in a Box’ venture, that incentivises door-to-door service continuity by helping CRPs set up profitable businesses;
• An uncovered population of 5.7 million in 10 districts benefiting from access to family planning counselling and services.