On January 9, 2017, the National Health Mission of the state government of Rajasthan in India signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Advance Family Planning local partner Pathfinder International to improve the quality of family planning services in five districts of Rajasthan: Baran, Bhilwara, Madhopur, Pali, Sawai, and Sirohi.
Leading up to the MOU, Pathfinder facilitated a learning visit for Rajasthan’s National Health Mission officials to the state of Haryana, where injectable contraceptives have been successfully introduced into the public health system with support from Pathfinder and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The new commitment reflects the Government of Rajasthan’s strong effort to expand choice, and ensure access to and availability of quality family planning services – implementing India’s Family Planning 2020 commitment.
Next, Pathfinder will advocate with the state government and project districts for inclusion of injectable contraceptives in the public health system and state’s Essential Drug List – a critical step for decentralized procurement of injectables. Through these steps, Pathfinder anticipates that the project districts will be ready to begin rolling out injectable contraceptives by April 2017