141st APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

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Recorded Annual Meeting Presentations (RAMP) are now available for purchase.
Only $90 for presenters, $140 for registered attendees and $200 for non-attendees.

Online Program

295007
Family planning success: Innovations for community-based results that change national policy


Monday, November 4, 2013 : 8:50 a.m. - 9:05 a.m.

Douglas H. Huber, MD, MSc, Reproductive Health Specialist, Innovative Development Expertise and Advisory Services, Inc. (IDEAS), Newton, MA
  
     
A pilot project in three areas of rural Afghanistan engaged community leaders, including mullahs, as it delivered condoms, oral contraceptives and injectables at the household level for 3708 couples. Contraceptive prevalence rates (CPR) rapidly increased by 24-27 points over 8 months in three areas, 2005-2006. Mullahs often helped educate the community, especially men, for improving maternal and child health by spacing pregnancies and by giving correct contraceptive information. None of 37 mullahs opposed the effort. Verified CPR results from CHWs led the government and international donors to adopt project innovations for national scale-up.

The new multi-faith Faith to Action (F2A) network utilizes these community successes to advance family health and well-being based on common values. It supports family planning advocacy, demand generation and service provision at the global, national and country levels, especially in Africa and Asia. Current activities and plans will be described.

Learning Areas:

Administer health education strategies, interventions and programs
Administration, management, leadership
Advocacy for health and health education
Assessment of individual and community needs for health education
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Program planning

Learning Objectives:
Discuss innovations for changing family planning practices in the conservative culture of Afghanistan through community and religious leaders Demonstrate how documented program success at the community level can rapidly change national policy Describe the role for a new multi-faith initiative, the Faith to Action (F2A) network, for family planning advocacy at the global, national, and community level

Keyword(s): Family Planning, Maternal and Child Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: My 40-year career in IH has a strong focus on family planning, including the design, implementation and monitoring of community-based FP programs globally. I serve as a co-chair for the Christian Connections for International Health Family Planning/Reproductive Health working group, and I am on the Steering Council of the newly formed Faith to Action network for multi-faith advocacy for family health and well-being to enable couples to voluntarily determine the timing and number of pregnancies.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 3043.0: International Maternal, Neonatal & Child Health