{"id":6018,"date":"2022-02-15T15:10:05","date_gmt":"2022-02-15T15:10:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kmtraining.org\/family-planning-association-nepal-is-leaving-no-one-behind\/"},"modified":"2022-02-15T15:10:05","modified_gmt":"2022-02-15T15:10:05","slug":"family-planning-association-nepal-is-leaving-no-one-behind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kmtraining.org\/fr\/family-planning-association-nepal-is-leaving-no-one-behind\/","title":{"rendered":"Family Planning Association Nepal Is Leaving No One Behind"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Created in 1959, Family Planning Association Nepal<\/a> (FPAN) is the country\u2019s first national sexual and reproductive health service delivery and advocacy organization. Sixty-three years later, FPAN continues to ensure that family planning (FP) information and services are available and accessible to families\u2014no matter their identity, ability, location, gender, or socioeconomic status.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

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During the 1950s and \u201860s, discussions of family planning and sexuality went against prevailing social norms<\/a>\u2014so much so, that people used to actively avoid FPAN, even crossing the street to avoid walking past the office. People were embarrassed, and the norm was to encourage people to have many children. In fact, the Nepali saying, \u201cMay your children spread across the far-off hills,\u201d would play on Radio Nepal across the country.<\/p>\n

A lot has changed since then.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

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\"MapFPAN now works in 44 districts in Nepal, delivering sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services through 1,232 service delivery points, including fixed facilities, outreach, and mobile clinics. Nearly half of FPAN clients receive services through community-based distribution teams. Inclusivity is at the core of FPAN\u2019s work, with over 88% of clients representing poor, marginalized, socially excluded, and underserved populations. In addition, women make up more than 50% of FPAN board members; staff and the governance structure include youth representatives from all seven provinces.<\/p>\n

Given this history of reaching and serving marginalized and under-represented populations, including people with disabilities, those in remote areas, people living with HIV (PLHIV), trafficked returnees, migrant workers, LGBTQI people, sex workers, and others, we asked FPAN to outline its key components for equity and inclusion.<\/p>\n

Key Practices to Strengthen Equity and Inclusion<\/h3>\n

Use Data and Evidence<\/strong>
\nEvidence-based planning and implementation are crucial for FPAN as it continues to expand its reach to address marginalized and vulnerable populations. Evidence is used to monitor reach, evaluate effectiveness, and plan new activities; therefore, lessons learned are continuously incorporated. As part of its evidence-based, data-driven focus, FPAN has mapped out its catchment areas through household surveys, aided by community workers with extensive knowledge of their areas. Deprivation ranking is used to further understand the socioeconomic status of each catchment area to better reach underserved clients. FPAN captures its service statistics using its poor, marginalized, socially excluded, and underserved indicator, using the evidence to inform program implementation.<\/p>\n

Engage Diverse Communities<\/strong>
\nFPAN supports marginalized communities in claiming their rights to SRH through educational programs tailored to meet their information and service needs. For example, FPAN has produced information, education, and communication (IEC) materials in braille, videos featuring sign language interpretation, and comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) sessions targeting hard-to-reach populations. These CSE sessions are delivered in school as part of extracurricular activities, or outside the school setting by peer educators.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

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\"\"<\/strong><\/em>V\u00e4est\u00f6liitto<\/strong>
\nFPAN was the first in Nepal to respond to disabled clients\u2019 SRH needs, via the V\u00e4est\u00f6liitto project in the Kathmandu Valley. The project, funded by the Family Federation of Finland, focuses on changing community attitudes (through communication campaigns and engagement with activists and the media), advocacy, improving the quality of SRH services for people living with disabilities, and knowledge exchange among organizations serving people with disabilities, the Government of Nepal (GON), and other country teams. This video<\/a> (in Nepali) presents how FPAN reaches people with disabilities through the V\u00e4est\u00f6liitto project, using sign language and voices from the Blue Diamond Society<\/a>, which works for the LGBTQI community.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

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Engage Peer Educators to Mobilize Communities<\/strong>
\nFPAN actively informs communities about available services through Peer Educators recruited from diverse groups such as:<\/p>\n