29 Aug. 2013
Action for Reproductive Health (ARH) is pleased to share an important report from Conservation International. ARH has received permission from Conservation International to share this report about the Philippines as there are important lessons that can learned and applied to Uganda.
In sharing the report with ARH (and others), Janet Edmond of Conservation explained the following:
This report compares the findings of surveys conducted in 2011 and 2013 to assess the results and impacts of the BALANCED-Philippines Project. Throughout the project, BALANCED-Philippines has delivered community-based family planning (FP) to municipalities in the DB and VIP with ongoing coastal/fisheries management activities in existing or maintenance sites and new sites. BALANCED-Philippines provided the full packet of FP/Reproductive Health (RH) services including PHE advocacy; community-based distribution of FP products; peer education, behavior change communication that with integrated FP and environmental messages; and monitoring and supervision. This approach replicated the public-private PHE model that was developed and refined under a previous PHE project implemented by BALANCED Project partner Path Foundation Philippines, Inc. (PFPI).
According to the report, it is clear that that there have been positive changes in knowledge and behaviors over the approximately 18 months from the beginning of the project until the final survey was conducted. There have been increases in all the indicators that measured the impacts of increasing access to and awareness and support for FP/RH services and in all contextual indicators, except for condition of the resources. Since the positive changes in perceptions and knowledge were greater for the new sites than the maintenance sites, the greatest changes may occur in the beginning of an initiative. This indicates that it is worthwhile to expand the PHE approach to work in new sites.
The report is available for download as PDF on the Conservation International website: