Daily Times

Karachi: The provincial government has announced that family planning will be its most important priority over the next two years. This decision has been taken in the light of Pakistan’s international commitments under the Family Planning 2020 London Summit.

Taking the lead inside the country, the provincial government had launched a Costed Implementation Plan (CIP) in 11 districts. It is now being extended to the entire province.

It was decided at a meeting on Monday, chaired by Dr. Azra Fazal Pechuho, who chairs the Sindh FP2020 Taskforce.

All Divisional Commissioners and Deputy Commissioners will supervise birth spacing services under the CIP. District Health and Population Officers will be responsible for taking the lead in implementation of CIP. The Deputy Commissioners will make it sure that the district level implementation report is submitted to the CIP Secretariat of the Population Welfare Department in the first week of every month. The DCs will review progress on a monthly basis in their respective districts, while the Sindh FP2020 Taskforce will review the progress on a quarterly basis.

Chairing the meeting, Dr. Pechuho said that results of the national census held last year presented an alarming picture that Pakistan was fast growing while its resources remained scarce. “Development and economic growth will be hampered if we cannot take into account the population growth factor,” she said, adding that Sindh took the lead in initiating implementing FP2020 commitments.

Shahnaz Wazir Ali, the provincial technical coordinator for the Oversight and Coordination Cell for Public Health Programmes, said that progress can be accelerated through birth spacing programmes. The FP2020 initiative and the CIP roadmap has the potential to increase the Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR) in a significant manner.

Dr. Fazlullah Pechuho, the health secretary, said the Health Department will work with Population Welfare Department to achieve family planning/CIP objectives. He said potential clients will be referred to special camps of CIP and routine camps of PWD. And all hospitals will impart post-pregnancy family planning services (PPFP).

Talib Lashari, the technical advisor for CIP, provided details of implementation for the next two years at provincial and district level. He said that 22 percent is the unmet need at provincial level – percentage of married women who intend to space or limit child bearing but they do not have access to family planning services. In order to achieve 45% CPR by 2020, Sindh required to reach out to at least 986,000 additional users (new) over the next two years.

Published in Daily Times, April 24^th 2018.