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| Advocacy
and Communication : |
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| Advocacy
and Communication Programme in UNFPA’s Country Programme
(CP) – 6 |
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The
United Nations Fund for Population Activities’(UNFPA)
Country Programme six (UNFPA CP-6), draws its philosophy
from the goals and Programme of Action of the International
Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), and the
National Population Policy (NPP) 2000. The goal of CP-6
is to support the national goal of population stabilization
and improve quality of life through working towards the
elimination of human poverty and inequalities and sustainable
human development with full regard to NPP 2000 and ICPD
principles and goals.
The objectives of the Programme are (i) to assess achievement,
identify challenges, constraints and opportunities and formulate
lessons learnt in the implementation of the ICPD PoA and
recommend corrective strategies for the next 10 years (ii)
to build supportive policy and programme environment for
improved quality of care through advocacy initiatives and
(iii) to promote issue-based advocacy initiatives through
non-government organizations by providing them small grants.
The first preparatory meeting of the Core
Group for the PFI-UNFPA’s
Advocacy Project on ICPD+10- NGO Perspectives was held in May
2004. Keeping in view the time constraint and some level of
overlapping, it was discussed how best to synergize the activities
of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare - UNFPA funded
AP-6 advocacy project with the overall goal of ICPD+10 Civil
Society Dialogue. It was suggested that advocacy be carried
out on some priority areas and necessary changes be made in
the implementation process. The issue of missing girls and
Law, Policy and Rights were identified as priority areas. A
monitoring and implementation committee was constituted under
the CP-6 advocacy project. The first meeting of the committee
was held in May 2004. A second preparatory meeting was held
in June, 2004.
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| a. Advocacy on the theme
of Missing Girls |
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The
theme of “Missing Girls” is
an interface between Population and Development namely declining
child sex-ratio, sex selection, two child norm, sex – selective
abortion, female foeticide and gender and equity concerns.
As mentioned earlier, PFI identified the issue of “Missing
Girls” as one of the key areas of advocacy
The first preparatory
meeting on Missing Girls was held in Mumbai in May 2004
and the MoU was signed with all seven NGOs, namely, Social
Uplift Through Rural Action (SUTRA) for Himachal Pradesh;
Centre for Enquiry into Health and Allied Themes (CEHAT)
for Maharashtra; Centre for Women’s
Development Studies (CWDS) for Delhi; Voluntary Health Association
of Punjab (VHAP) for Punjab; Family Planning Association
for Haryana; PRAYAS for Rajasthan; and Centre for Health,
Education, Training and Nutrition Awareness (CHETNA) for
Gujarat. The aim was to create awareness about the value
of girl child, positive contribution of girls to society,
awareness about declining child sex ratio, its causes and
consequences, the PNDT Act etc. All partner NGOs carried
out the proposed activities in their respective areas of
operation. |
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b. Advocacy on
Laws, Policies and Rights
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A national consultation on Law, Policy and Rights in the
context of Reproductive Health and Population Stabilization
was held during September 25-26, 2004 in Delhi. Around eighty
participants from Government, international organizations
and NGO sector participated in the Consultation. The year
2004 marked the tenth anniversary of the International Conference
on Population and Development (ICPD) held at Cairo 1994.
It offered a unique opportunity to understand and explore
the relationship between laws, policies and rights in relation
to reproductive health. Against this backdrop of revisiting
Cairo by engaging civil society to plan and organize events
to commemorate ‘ICPD at 10’, the Population Foundation
of India, in association with SAHAYOG, Human Rights Law Network
and Lawyer’s Collective, organized this National Consultation.
The programme of the two-day Consultation spanned five
major themes: (i) population policies and the two-child norm,
(ii) contraception and family planning, (iii) pre-birth sex
selection and access to safe abortion, (iv) child and adolescent
rights, and (v) unsafe motherhood.
The Consultation highlighted various issues and challenges
related to family planning including issues such as population
policies, reproductive rights, reproductive health and primary
health. Through the open discussions, the participants provided
recommendations to the government on the five thematic areas.
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The
major recommendations which emerged out of the Consultation
were: |
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Family
Planning is not an isolated programme, but is a part of a
comprehensive service package including safe motherhood,
reduction of infant and child mortality, survival of the
girl child, women’s education and empowerment, adolescent
health, health information and counselling .Therefore, family
planning has to be positioned in the broader context of reproductive
health and reproductive rights. |
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Reproductive
health and reproductive rights have to be viewed in the
context of Comprehensive Primary Health Care – which
is still a revolutionary concept that looks far beyond the
customary boundaries of curative and preventive medicine
and tries to address the underlying causes of poverty, hunger,
food, security and poor health.
Specific recommendations
for action relating to each of the thematic issues were
made at the Consultation. A complete report on the Consultation
has been brought out as a publication, during the year
under report.
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c. Issues based advocacy on Quality of Care
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Quality of Care (QoC) has emerged as a critical element
of reproductive health programmes. Emphasis on QoC was made
explicit at the ICPD Cairo in 1994. ICPD – PoA affirms
that all Public and Private health programmes including family
planning must improve Quality of Care. Unfortunately QoC
of reproductive health services continues to be poor in many
places in our country, despite many efforts to improve them.
It is in this context that advocacy on QoC assumes importance
role. PFI initiated issue based advocacy for strengthening
Quality of Care of reproductive health services in 2004.
To start with, a planning meeting with NGO partners of
Quality of Care, namely, Sahyog, Lucknow; Bharat Gyan Vigyan
Samiti (BGVS), Bhubaneshwar; Prayas, Rajasthan; and Ranchi-PFI,
YARSH Project, Jharkhand, was held in September 2004 and
it was decided to hold advocacy meetings in four states i.e.
Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa and Jharkhand. A concept
note with plan of action was prepared and shared with partner
NGOs. Four advocacy workshops on Quality of Care were held
in Bhubaneshwar, Ranchi, Lucknow and Jaipur. Representatives
from the government, civil society, the media and local NGOs
attended the workshops. Each workshop came up with recommendations.
An experience sharing meeting of key stakeholders on Quality
of Care was held on December 17, 2004 at the Population Foundation
of India, where representatives from various technical agencies
concerned with reproductive health like Population Council,
International Planed Parenthood Federation (IPPF), UNFPA, NGOs
as well as representatives from the Ministry of Health and
Family Welfare and the National Institute of Health and Family
Welfare participated. There were four specific state level
presentations followed by discussions. On this occasion a document
on “Improving Quality of Care of Reproductive Health
Services – An Advocacy Handbook” was released by
Prof. Ranjit Roy Chaudhury, a Governing Board member of PFI. |
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