View the latest family planning advocacy news from our partners.
This year, all 52 Urban Primary Health Centers serving the 3.1 million people in Lucknow district, Uttar Pradesh, India began offering intra-uterine contraceptive device (IUCD) insertion services. Between January and September 2016, 2,836 women received IUCD insertions.
Jharkhand state in India has founded its first state- and district-level advocacy working groups for family planning. The three groups have been formally established and endorsed by the state government.
In September, the Family Planning 2020 (FP2020) partnership’s Rapid Response Mechanism awarded US $75,000 to Advance Family Planning local partner Yayasan Cipta Cara Padu Indonesia (YCCP). The award will support YCCP in engaging local leaders to implement the government’s “Kampung KB” program.
Radio Kaya and Radio Ranet in Kwale county, Kenya, have committed to run weekly segments on family planning as a contribution to improving the lives of the people of Kwale. As of October, segments have begun airing, triggering stories across multiple platforms.
Radio Ranet’s station manager, Mr. Hamisi Mwachai, committed to assigning a specific reporter to cover family planning-related issues and have the stories aired during prime time for the next three months.
On October 6, 2016, the Council of Ministers of the government of Mauritania approved the text of a new Reproductive Health (RH) Bill submitted by the Minister of Health. This approval is a huge victory for advocates in Mauritania led by STOP SIDA, a recipient of financial and technical assistance from the Opportunity Fund.
Six districts in Bihar state, India have established district advocacy working groups. The groups—formed for the first time in Araria, Gopalganj, Jehanabad, Kishanganj, Sheohar and Siwan districts—are now initiating strategic advocacy efforts to improve access to quality family planning services in their communities.
In April 2016, the House of Assembly in Plateau State, Nigeria approved a US $25,125 (5 million Naira) budget allocation for reproductive health and family planning implementation in the 2016 state health budget. This is the first time the state has allocated for family planning separately, in addition to the reproductive health budget. The state has also, for the first time, outlined the specific family planning activities this budget line will support.
September 20, 2016
Advance Family Planning (AFP) is expanding its advocacy initiative to Bangladesh, partnering with Marie Stopes Bangladesh to lead efforts there. Bangladesh will be AFP’s tenth focus country since the initiative began in 2009, and its third in Southeast Asia. The expansion is part of AFP’s $19.5 million supplemental awards to broaden its efforts to new geographies in 2016.
August 26, 2016
In June, Advance Family Planning (AFP) awarded grants to nine organizations across eight countries to participants of AFP’s "Fostering Locally-Driven Advocacy for Family Planning" workshop in January 2016. The grants, totaling $470,000, are managed by PAI through the Opportunity Fund.
On June 7, 2016 the Director of the Ministry of Health’s National Center of Gender Equality and Reproductive Health (NCGERH) in Mexico endorsed implementing a social monitoring model to improve youth access to contraception. The model, developed by Ampliando El Acceso advocacy partner MEXFAM MEXICO, will be piloted in the states of Oaxaca, Hidalgo and San Luis Potosi.
In June, Tanzania’s Parliament moved to endorse a special provision in the recently-passed Public Procurement Act (2016) that will fast-track life-saving health commodities, including contraceptives. Beginning this year, life-saving health commodities will receive priority throughout the procurement and distribution process. Family planning stakeholders advocated for the past two years for improvements to alleviate bottlenecks in the procurement process and help reduce contraceptive stock-outs in the country.