Speakers focus on best practices, possible synergies to control alarming population growth

A multi-sectoral dialogue, held at a local hotel on Thursday, brought together a wide range of stakeholders: from assembly members to senior officials of numerous departments, including health, population welfare, education, sports and youth affairs, from commissions on women and health to academia and civil society.

Participants shared best practices and explored possible synergies and coordination to collectively manage the alarming population growth as emphasised by the Supreme Court and the Council of Common Interest.

The focus was a life-cycle approach to ensure universal access to reproductive health and family planning services, with a special focus on Post Pregnancy Family Planning (PPFP) and youth and the need to integrate the social dimensions into trainings, service provision and a national narrative that demands gender-transformative interventions.

The meeting, organised by Shirkat Gah - Women’s Resource Centre and Aahung, shared the lessons of Naya Qadam Project, in particular the value of an integrated approach to Adolescent and Youth Sexual and Reproductive Health (AYSRH) and Gender to promote PPFP uptake amongst the community and improve service delivery through integrated training modules developed that have been rolled out with multi-tiered service providers in a cascade model officially endorsed by the Population Welfare Department (PWD) Sindh. To promote community uptake and bring a new community narrative, Youth Champions and Male Allies, trained through innovative approaches including theatre, have been spreading the message and new knowledge to people in Larkana, Karachi, and Shaheed Benazirabad.

Opening the event, Farida Shaheed, executive director, Shirkat Gah, emphasised the vitality of all stakeholders to address the challenge. Appreciating that Sindh has taken the lead in increasing the minimum age of marriage and introducing Life-skills based education (LSBE) in schools, she shared that in Iran FP counselling is mandatory in order to get married.

Naureen Lalani, senior manager, Aahung stressed the value of such a multisectoral dialogue and threw light on some of the challenges youth face in accessing information and services in the field. Dr Xaher Gul, senior technical adviser, Pathfinder International (that is supporting the 3-year intervention) emphasised the need to address the social dimensions of health determinants. A brainstorming session, led by industry veterans, explored areas of inter-sectoral collaboration.

Dr Talib Lashari, technical adviser CIP Sindh, emphasised the need for LSBE, new FP technologies, investing in girls’ education, youth employment and women’s empowerment and meeting the huge unmet need for FP.

He said that the Sindh is the only province which is working on post-abortion and family planning. He said that in more than 29 districts of the province, women are provided injections to have a gap of three months in their next pregnancy and this injection they can administer themselves in their homes privately. Lashari said that FP2020 is extended for the next 10 years till 2030. Now the focus will be on education, youth engagement, women empowerment, FP services and its sustainability, eradication of poverty, revival of play grounds in high schools and student unions in the form of debating societies which we seen in major universities of the world where youth talk about various issues.

He also announced the introduction of a helpline, through which youth will be able to talk to health experts in complete privacy.

MPA Tanzila ume-Habiba spoke of the necessity to view things holistically and introduce counselling for boys and male youths, especially in rural areas.

MPA Sidra Imran, underlining that Pakistan’s population growth was well above – sometimes double that of other Muslim majority countries, stressed the need for youths 18 and above to be apprised of reproductive health and family planning before their marriages.

The PTI MPA talked about managing population in such a way that the educational, social, economic needs of the future families could be met according to the sources available in the country. She further suggested raising awareness in various rural areas about FP issues according to the dynamic and traditions of that area.

In her closing remarks, Deputy Speaker Rehana Laghari of the Sindh Provincial Assembly said that we should take a lesson from birds who first build a nest before they lay eggs. She recommended that people should have a home and ability to care for their children before they marry.

The speaker emphasised the need to engage men in FP issues, especially in rural areas where the decision power rests with men. She pointed out that the basic hurdle in the implementation of any policy is the attitude of bureaucracy, and there is need to devise a system where such hurdles could not impede implementation of policies.