Best Practices -- SIFPSA Shows The Way

SIFPSA has successfully funded 600 projects. It has supported 130 NGOs for working in the field of reproductive & child health. More than 40,000 RCH camps have been held to provide an array of quality services at rural PHCs/CHCs, five statewide tetanus toxoid immunization campaigns for pregnant women have been organized and more than 45,000 providers in public & private sectors have been trained for developing their clinical & counselling skills and helping in community mobilization. In addition, SIFPSA has developed and aired huge behaviour change communication campaigns. Statewide social marketing interventions provide about a million couple years of protection (CYP), every year. To top it all more than 200 studies by independent organizations have provided feedback on the effectiveness of interventions, their reach and shortcomings. However, most of this wealth of experience, information and data had remained confined to SIFPSA and had not been available for use by its partners, other donors & state government organizations. It was to address this lacuna that a dissemination seminar was organized.

A Treasure Trove of Experience

The Innovations in Family Planning Services (IFPS) Project Dissemination Seminar was organized by SIFPSA, on 5 December, 2003 at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. The purpose of this seminar was to share the wealth of experience gained over the last nine years, in developing and implementing reproductive and child health activities in the difficult environment of Uttar Pradesh. The seminar also provided a platform to synthesize critical lessons learned and identify what works and what does not. A document on best practices evolved titled, “Making a Difference”, and was also released on the occasion.
Welcoming the delegates, Mr. J.S. Deepak, Executive Director of SIFPSA outlined the achievements of the IFPS Project. He highlighted the fact that the annual increase in contraceptive use in SIFPSA districts is more than double that of an average district in UP.

Mr. P.K.Hota, Secretary, family Welfare, Gol and Mr. Walter North, Director USAID releasing SIFPSA's best practices document.

“ SIFPSA is an organization which is characterized by innovation”, said Mr. P.K.Hota, Secretary, Family Welfare, Government of India while delivering the inaugural address. “Though SIFPSA is a young organization, it has been able to establish itself as an island of achievements in the social sector of Uttar Pradesh”, he pointed out. Releasing the documentation of SIFPSA’s best practices, Mr. Hota expressed the hope that SIFPSA would continue to blaze a trail of innovations, as it was ideally placed to extend its activities, and expand its work to the entire state of Uttar Pradesh.
Mr. Walter North, Director USAID stated emphatically that USAID was proud to be associated with SIFPSA. Over the years SIFPSA had developed a number of interventions that in his opinion “offer significant lessons for other programmes”. Pledging to work with SIFPSA for the next five years, Mr North commented on the significant role being played by SIFPSA in addressing the reproductive health concerns of the people of Uttar Pradesh. Applauding some of the interventions, which included the decentralization of management of the RCH programme to the district level, partnerships with NGOs, RCH camps for quality services in rural areas, Mr. North noted that IFPS activities had resulted in increasing the contraceptive prevalence rate to 27.3% in the SIFPSA project areas as compared to 21.3% in the non-SIFPSA districts, a remarkable achievement.

	IFPS Dissemination Seminar

The seminar experience sharing sessions covered topics related to private sector participation, behaviour change communication, social marketing, district action plans, quality improvement in the public sector and the SIFPSA systems. Each session was chaired by an eminent person who provided valuable comments, feedback and suggestions. The participants included key members of the donor community, senior officers of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, GoI like Mr. Anurag Goel, Additional Secretary, SIFPSA staff and experts like Mr. A. R. Nanda, Executive Director, Population Foundation of India & Dr. Saroj Pachauri of the Population Council. A number of SIFPSA alumni including Ms. Aradhana Johri, former Executive Director also participated, delved into their experiences, and enriched the deliberations.
Chairing the session on behaviour change communication, Mr. Gerson da Cunha, the doyen of advertising and communication said, “SIFPSA is the only organization I know in the government sector which does research and creates material based on pre-test of concepts and designs. It is therefore hardly surprising, that its campaigns are making a difference”.
The seminar concluded with a panel discussion on future directions for SIFPSA.