QUETTA The media has been called upon to play a pivotal role in urging federal and provincial governments to collaborate with family physicians and pharmacies in order to enhance access to contraceptives and family planning services.
Involvement of Community Midwives (CMWs) was also emphasized in providing family planning services which can be a significant step towards helping impoverished rural women, who face higher unmet needs for family planning and accessibility challenges.
This was discussed during the Media Coalition Meeting organized by the Population Council with the support from UNFPA here.
Media Coalition comprises of media persons from all provinces representing all major media outlets of Pakistan. The coalition highlights the cross sectoral impact of rapid population growth periodically to raise awareness and hold governments accountable for improving the wellbeing of the people.
In his welcome remarks, Dr Ali Mir, Senior Director Programs, Population Council said that recently concluded 20
23 Census has counted 241.9 million people in Pakistan with an annual intercensal growth rate of 2.55%. This has raised considerable concerns regarding continuing high rates of population growth and slow progress in bringing any change in the last five years despite the CCI decisions of 2018.
‘Media can advocate for improving access to family planning services by highlighting the importance of involving private sector and delivering services at grassroots level through their reporting and media coverage. Similarly, leveraging the untapped potential of Community Midwives (CMWs) is also crucial to improve the access of family planning services across the country. These two areas can be game changers for FP Service Delivery and improving Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR)’.
The Population Council, through its research, has shown that both approaches are workable. By engaging private sector providers an increase was seen in clients who wanted to avail family planning services. It also led to a substantial incr
ease in the sale of contraceptives products.
Explaining Population Council’s experience on engaging Community Midwives (CMWs) to expand family planning services in rural communities of Sindh, Samia Ali Shah Project Director, Population Council, said, ‘CMWs and LHWs working in tandem to reduce the unmet need of family planning can be a game-changer for Pakistan’.
She observed that best time for family planning counseling and service provision is during women’ visits to CMWs for ante-natal (ANC), natal, and postnatal care (PNC).
Participants of the meeting pledged to use media as an effective tool in pressing governments to meet the unmet need for family planning among the poorer women. They also called on federal and provincial governments to ensure the supply of contraceptives and greater involvement of the private sector and community health workers, i.e. LHWs and CMWs, in family planning service provision.
They also agreed to play a positive role in increasing awareness around enhancing access of reprod
uctive health information and services to married couples in Pakistan as media campaigns could impress upon the governments to ensure availability of contraceptive and trained staff at all health outlets.