KARACHI: Sindh government on Monday announced Family Planning as the most important task for specially the next two years and even beyond.
This decision was taken in the light of Pakistan’s international commitment made FP2020 (Family Planning 2020) at the London Summit. Sindh government has taken the lead in Pakistan and already launched a Coasted Implementation Plan (CIP) which in 11 districts since last one year. But now it will be implemented in all 29 districts of the province.
The decision was taken in a meeting held on April 23 by Sindh FP2020 Taskforce Chairperson and MNA Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho. The meeting was attended by Health Secretary Dr Fazlullah Pechuho, Population Welfare Department (PWD) Secretary Laeeq Ahmed, Oversight and Coordination Cell Provincial Technical Coordinator Shahnaz Wazir Ali, CIP Technical Advisor Dr Talib Lashari, PWD Social Sector member Dr Fawad Shaikh, all divisional commissioners, all deputy commissioners, district health officers; district population welfare officers and other government functionaries.
According to decision taken, all divisional commissioners and deputy commissioners will supervise the birth spacing services under CIP being imparted by the PWD and its programmes involving Lady Health Workers, Maternal Child Health Program and NGOs.
District health officers and population officers will be responsible for taking the lead in the implementation of CIP. The Deputy Commissioners will make it sure that the district level implementation report is submitted to CIP PWD Secretariat in the first week of each month.
It was decided that DCs will review progress on monthly basis in their respective districts while Sindh FP2020 Taskforce will review the progress on a quarterly basis.
While chairing the meeting, Dr Azra Fazal said that results of Census of 2017 present alarming picture that Pakistan has become the fast-growing country while we know that resources are scarce thus, development and economic growth will be hampered if we cannot take into account the population growth factor.
She said Sindh has taken the lead in initiating implementing FP2020 commitments. Thus, we will not only fulfill international commitments but can reduce fertility so that to achieve economic growth in Sindh and in turn in Pakistan.
Shahnaz Wazir on the occasion narrated that the progress can be accelerated through birth spacing programmes. The FP2020 initiative and the CIP roadmap has the potential to increase Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR) in a significant manner, she added.
It was also announced that health Secretary Dr Fazlullah Pechuho will work with PWD hand in hand to achieve family planning/CIP objectives. He said that lady health workers will refer potential clients to special camps of CIP and routine camps of PWD. And all hospitals will impart Post-Pregnancy family Planning Services (PPFP).
PWD Secretary Laeeq Ahmed said that CIP is a roadmap of our department as well as of other relevant departments and NGOs for FP2020. It has accelerated the pace of activities for at least the past one year.
He said all the 72 Reproductive Health Services Centres and 961 Family Welfare Centres of PWD will accelerate efforts to achieve the family planning goals.
CIP Technical Advisor Dr Talib Lashari provided details of implementation for the next two years at provincial and district level. He informed that 22% is the unmet need at the provincial level, it’s the percentage of those married women who intend to space or limit childbearing but they do not have access to family planning services.
He informed that in order to achieve 45% of Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR) by 2020, Sindh requires to reach out to at least 9, 86,000 additional users (new) over the next two years.
In this regard, each district has been provided with its minimum number of additional users to be reached. The progress will be reviewed on a monthly and quarterly basis.
During the meeting, the Divisional Commissioners, Deputy Commissioners, DHOs and DPWOs presented progress review of their respective districts.