Mayor Amadou Diarra signed a commitment letter on January 5th, 2015 to invest 10 million FCFA (US $18,305) of the 2015 budget (a total of US $1,482,500) to purchase family planning products for the two health posts in the North Pikine commune of Senegal. AFP and Futures Group collaborated with Réseau Siggil Jigéen (RSJ) to achieve this Quick Win – a discrete funding increase or policy advancement.
The Quick Win was obtained after the creation of an advocacy working group in Senegal, following an AFP SMART session facilitated by RSJ, Association Bien-Etre de la Famille (ASBEF), and Action et Développement (AcDev). During the session, young artists performed a play representing the difficult experience of a pregnant mother with several children. The depiction of a true story from the North Pikine commune deeply moved the audience and particularly the mayor. Although RSJ has made progress with mayors previously, this Quick Win is by far the most significant amount pledged to family planning by a mayor to date in Senegal.
North Pikine has two health posts to cover 12 neighborhoods and a population of 49,680 inhabitants.
The transfer of resources and decisionmaking to the commune level through a decentralization act passed in 2014, significantly strengthened the organizational capacity of the local community. The local authorities now have to respond to the population’s development needs, including reproductive health, by implementing adapted mechanisms to improve the quality of life of their communities.
To monitor this Quick Win, a letter (appended with the commitment letter) was sent to the Director of Reproductive Health and Child Survival and the Health Districts’ Chief Doctors, to define evaluation indicators for the commitment. RSJ will establish a list of indicators in collaboration with the technical department to measure progress resulting from this investment.
Based on the progress in North Pikine, RSJ plans to cultivate a pool of family planning champion mayors nationwide before advocating to the Ministry of Finance to create a budget line for family planning in the local government budget nomenclature.