icfp 2016 lauren van enk

USING EVIDENCE TO EXPAND CHOICE, EMPOWER WOMEN, AND INVOLVE COMMUNITIES.

FAITH-BASED ORGANIZATIONS as PARTNERS in FAMILY PLANNING Working Together to Improve Family Well-being

LAUREN VAN ENK Institute for Reproductive Health

Georgetown University

January 23, 2016

Study Objectives

• Explore the role of the faith sector in improving

maternal and child health (MCH) through

family planning;

• Describe unique contributions of the faith

sector in family planning;

• Understand the current relationships between

FBOs and secular organizations working in

family planning; and

• Identify opportunities for increased

collaboration and more effective partnerships.

Afghanistan

Mali

Ethiopia

Kenya

• Faith-based organizations

• Churches

• Non-governmental organizations

• International aid agencies • Governments

In-depth interviews conducted with respondents from:

Muslim

Protestant

Christian

Orthodox

Catholic

Interfaith

Study Methods

Study Report


MOTIVATIONS & ACTIONS

What motivates engagement in

family planning?

“Whether a Muslim is liberal or

conservative, their core values come from the Koran and

religious teaching. Islam supports

the health of the mother. If we

can show that the mother’s health is improved by timing and

spacing of pregnancy, we can

make the case. We talk to

Muslims in our own language.”

–Global Muslim FBO

• Maternal and child

health

• Economic development

for the poor


family planning?

“Sometimes there is

misconception, the secular world

may just present the attitude that

the church does not support family planning. This is very

misleading because if there is

any institution that promotes the

family unit, it is the church.” - Country-based Protestant,

Christian FBO


health


for the poor

• Strengthened marriages

• Family harmony

• Spiritual health


family planning?


health


for the poor

• Strengthened marriages

• Family harmony

• Spiritual health

• Women’s empowerment

• Human rights

• Population/Environment

“My interest in family planning

has always been from a rights perspective. The health rationale

is an important one, but there is

also a rights rationale.”

– Global secular NGO

How is the faith sector engaged in

family planning?

0

10

20

30

Country-based Muslim

Organizations

Country-based

Christian Organizations

Global FBOs

Number of respondents engaged in FP-related activities


COMMUNICATION

Language of agreement

“Our mandate is to promote health. The church’s work in the

family is a very key component

that we deal with. Secondly, we

do recognize that the health of the mother and the health of the

child literally reflect the health of

the population. So we do have a

lot of programs that focus on the health of the mother and the

child like family planning.”

–Country-based Christian,

Protestant NGO

• Healthy timing and

spacing of pregnancies

• Family Values

• Responsible parenthood

• Male involvement &

couple communication



• Family Values




“It is rare to find a woman in a

health center accompanied by

her husband! It’s the woman who comes, accompanied by

her children. For a year now, we

have been talking to men about

coming with their wives. We show the men that even the

imams accompany their wives.

We persuaded them that they

should accompany their wives to the health centers for prenatal

consultations and vaccinations.

We have found there are men

who are not negative, they don’t refuse family planning.” –

Country-based Muslim FBO




• Family Values




“Connecting to family values and

putting family planning into the

larger context of the family, rather than simply as the spacing

of children, is very, very

important. And the whole area

of being able to help -- hopefully, it’s spouses but also others who

are involved in sexual

relationships -- to communicate

with each other about these values and not just see this as a

mechanical action. I think that’s

very important and needs to be

spoken about much more in the international community.”

–Global Christian, Catholic FBO


Language of discord

• Population control

• Limiting births

• Abortion

“We’re trying to avoid controversial

statements like family planning. There’s

not a big difference between family planning and child spacing

though…But they have different

connotations, details, implications and

methods. There are terms that are more community friendly - like child

spacing, healthy living - these are

terms which are more acceptable

than the term family planning. In my community, family planning

unfortunately amounts to birth control

which is against Islamic teaching. – Country-based Muslim FBO

Language of discord

• Population control

• Limiting births

• Abortion

“I think there is an issue of language.

The moment you talk about family

planning, there are still so many, even

in the U.S., who think abortion, a lot

of it is misperceptions and ignorance.

From my perceptive, what helps us is

we don’t do anything without involving the local community. The

partnership building and listening to

our partners is extremely important.

That dialogue informs us how to move forward.” – Global Christian,

Protestant FBO


PARTNERSHIP

Partnership: Two or more parties working together to

achieve a mutually beneficial outcome that would

have been difficult for each to reach alone.

Mutual recognition of the problem

Design of a collaborative effort

Implementation

Institutionali-zation & scale-up

“I think one of the issues is to look at the common ground

where all faiths agree on certain principles. For example,

everybody agrees on some family planning methods,

including the Catholics. So that is one area. If we all

agree on a common ground, it becomes easy for

everybody, and everybody feels comfortable. Then also

come up with best practices. Certain methods have

successfully been accepted by the community and there

is tangible research information to prove that it is

something viable, it is practical and can bear fruit.”

- Country-based Muslim religious leader






Implementation

Institution-alization & scale-up

“Rather than construct ad-hoc partnerships with FBOs at

the country level, we wanted to support and strengthen

these country-level partnerships through regional cohesion.

So we brought them together at the regional level. In an

attempt to also be responsive to their needs, we

responded to some of their very concrete demands and

gave them the platform. We tried to facilitate the forum

where they could themselves come with their own

collation of the work they had done on sexual and

reproductive health and population.” –Donor, Global






Implementation

Institution-alization & scale-up

“In Afghanistan under an international donor-funded

project funded project, contraceptive prevalence

more than doubled in three rural areas in one year

after collaborations with religious leaders were

established. This is a solid example of the kind of

partnership than can move healthy family issues

forward. This model is now being scaled up through

technical support to the central and provincial ministry

of public health.” –Donor, Global

Lessons

Learned

• Expect that capacity building is a

fundamental activity between partners

• Be attentive to message development

and who delivers the message

• Foster safe spaces for continued dialogue


QUESTIONS What have you learned about effective

ways to communicate about family

planning?

- Key messages

- Messengers

- Communication channels

Are there any circumstances that are

presently keeping you from being more

involved programmatically family

planning?

icfp 2016 lauren van enk

Healthcare