Recorded presentation

Imelda Zosa-Feranil, MA, CEDPA, The Futures Group International, The POLICY Project, 1050 17th Street NW, Suite 1000, Washington D.C., DC 20036, 202-775-9680 x. 593, i.feranil@tfgi.com

Since the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development, efforts have been made to mobilize civil society participation in reproductive health policy processes in various countries. With connotations foreign to societies used to central planning and entitlements, civil society mobilization invites questions about time, resources, and actual impact. This paper describes how local groups mobilized community and political support to change national reproductive health policies and programs in Romania, and in turn, provided a model for multisectoral collaboration in broader public health initiatives. Experiences and lessons learned from the Romania success story are valuable for other entitlement-oriented societies.

Using the latest national data, the paper identifies Romania’s key reproductive health challenges in the context of severe economic constraints: • high maternal mortality (among Europe’s highest) owing to continued reliance on abortion as a “family planning” method, • replacing abortion with modern contraception to improve maternal health. The paper describes a strategy centered on civil society involvement in data gathering and dissemination, advocacy, and policy dialogue. These resulted in major policy changes that included government approval of: a) funding for contraceptives; b) targeting free contraceptives to vulnerable sectors of the population, and c) health insurance coverage of reproductive health services and contraceptive commodities. Growing cognizant of how civil society groups can actually assist the government, the Ministry of Health met with civil society representatives to develop a policy to support non-government involvement in public health initiatives.

Learning Objectives:

• To describe three ways by which civil society groups generated political and community support for reproductive health policy changes in Romania
• To identify at least two lessons learned from Romania's civil society mobilization efforts that are key to replicating the experience in other Eastern European countries.

Keywords: Public Health Policy, Reproductive Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.

Recorded presentation