KARACHI: Minister for Health and Population Welfare, Sindh, Dr Azra Pechuho, Wednesday chaired a consultative meeting with the Public Sector on the Family Planning 2030 Roadmap.
The meeting was attended by representatives of the Health Department, Population Welfare Department and representatives of the PPHI on the FP2030 Roadmap. The FP2030 Roadmap focused on the different variables that help implement family planning incentives and allow for the information and services related to family planning to be available and accessible to the most under-privileged.
Counselling should not only be directed at those who wish to avail FP services, but also to the service providers as they may have their own harmful biases that they may project onto the folks who need FP services. FP messaging should also be apparent and accessible on hospital notice boards, facades and imagery. There are around 200+ hospitals that have collaborated with the Population Welfare Departments FP initiatives and are aiming to or have already implemented them in their facilities.
Private hospitals must also be engaged in FP initiatives and the gynaecological association should also be part of the counsel that urges Post Pregnancy Family Planning (PPFP), as it has a whole host of benefits that extend beyond women’s health.
Booklets have been published that offer information in English, Urdu and Sindhi that are for the benefit and access of girls and women only. These booklets contain knowledge on the reproductive process as well as rights that enable girls and women to have a better, more scientific perspective on their own biological system.
The objectives of the FP2030 Roadmap that are to be implemented on a national level call for a political will to enable these progressive policy reforms and address the unmet needs for contraception. There must also be legislative support for this program and the institutionalization of human development and system strengthening to sustain and support FP efforts.
The vision for this program is that by the end of 2030, Sindh’s FP will reshape the lives of women, men, girls and the youth in general from villages to cities. The rights-based approach that is being employed in the program will be aiming for women empowerment, access to high quality modern contraceptives, relevant legislation, life skills and health and hygiene, with interventions within health, population, education and social sectors.
Strategies will include providing FP services especially in hard to reach, rural and remote areas, peri urban and slum areas. High quality contraceptives will be made available at sub-district and facility levels. Training of mid-level providers, (midwives, LHWs) on task sharing and task shifting.