Remarks by Elizabeth Hogan, USAID India Deputy Director at the Innovations in Family Planning Services Project Photo Exhibit in Lucknow

June 15, 2007

Good afternoon. It is a great honor to be here to celebrate the achievements of the Innovations in Family Planning Services Project in Uttar Pradesh.

I would like to welcome all who have come today. My U.S. Embassy colleagues and I are glad to be here in the important state of Uttar Pradesh, home to 170 million Indians – and therefore an important state to the United States.

The United States relationship with the state of Uttar Pradesh is well established. For over fifteen years, the U.S. Agency for International Development, USAID, has been providing support to ensure healthy communities by improving reproductive health and boosting child survival - when there were few other donors in the state.

In 1992, the Innovations in Family Planning Services Project, IFPS, began as a partnership between USAID, the Government of India and the Government of Uttar Pradesh. The project was established to improve access, quality and demand for reproductive health services in the State of Uttar Pradesh – toward the goal of reducing fertility and increasing the use of contraception. The project’s focus was later expanded to include antenatal care and safe delivery practices.

SIFPSA, the State Innovations in Family Planning Services Project, is the implementing agency for family planning and reproductive health activities under IFPS. The project has grown from working in six districts in 1994 to now working in 38 of the state’s 70 districts. The project has addressed reproductive health needs of more than 94 million of Uttar Pradesh’s 170 million people.

As you can see from the photos in this exhibit today, the first phase of the IFPS project has been responsible for a wide range of important accomplishments. From 1992 to 2003, use of contraception increased nearly twice as fast in districts where IFPS 1 was working than in the remaining districts where IFPS did not work. During the same period, statewide social marketing efforts contributed to a doubling of condom sales in rural areas throughout the state, to more than 100 million units sold each year.

Some of the notable project-level accomplishments over the lifespan of IFPS 1 include support for more than 50,000 reproductive and child health camps. Reproductive and child health camps provided training in spacing methods to 1.1 million clients, sterilization to 770,000 clients, and immunizations to nearly 525,000 children. Also through the camps, pregnant women received 475,000 antenatal check-ups. Additionally, under the project more than 10,000 auxiliary nurse-midwives and lady health visitors were trained in IUD insertion and skilled birth attendant training.

While walking through this photo exhibit, one can see some of these key interventions supported under IFPS 1. You will see photos featuring technical skills training for physicians and traditional birth attendants. Physicians received training in tubal ligation, IUD insertion and no-scalpel vasectomy leading to improvements in the quality of family planning services. Over the life of the project, more than 27,000 public sector health care providers were trained in family planning clinical and counseling skills.

In these photos, you will see examples of public private partnerships where IFPS has paved the way for increased private sector involvement in family planning through their work with 150 NGOs and 5,000 village level dairy cooperatives. IFPS has successfully positioned NGO’s as effective partners in the delivery of family planning services along side the public sector. Impressive results were gained in increasing use of spacing methods due to effective partnership with the private sector. Finally, these photos show some of the 10,500 public health facilities and sub centers upgraded for improved family planning service provision.

What we are particularly proud of is that the contributions of IFPS 1 have had a lasting contribution. Lessons learned under the first phase of IFPS have led to innovations now being implemented under IFPS 2 such as social franchising, voucher schemes and clinic-based NGO projects. Some of the interventions promoted under IFPS 1 have been noted as best practices for adoption at a national level for implementation nationwide. Examples of these interventions include district action planning and counseling on family planning and sales of family planning commodities through community-based distribution workers. These community-based distributors are now known as ASHA workers, delivering health care in communities all across India.

The achievements of IFPS 1 have undoubtedly left their mark on the districts in which the project has been working. I am encouraged not only by these achievements through IFPS 1, and now IFPS 2, but the general improvements in family planning for the entire state of Uttar Pradesh. Use of contraception is on the rise and fertility is decreasing. Between the time period when National Health and Family Survey 2 and 3 were completed, use of modern contraception has increased in UP from 20.8 % to 29.3%. The number of children per family decreased from 4.1 to 3.8. And use of spacing methods improved to such an extent that UP now compares with states such as Maharashtra and Gujarat in the use of spacing methods.

At the same time, our work in the reproductive health and family planning sector remains. Data from the National Family Health Survey 3 tells us that one out of five women would like to plan their families and would like to use a family planning method. However, for any number of reasons, they do not adopt a family planning method. Let’s try to find solutions so that their desire to plan their family is met. Your continued leadership, focus, and energy are needed in this area.

Thank you for the opportunity to inaugurate this photo exhibit. As a result of a number of interventions – public private partnerships with NGOs and dairy cooperatives, community-driven services through community workers, state-wide social marketing, and excellence in family planning clinical services delivery – access and quality to family planning has increased in UP.

In closing, I would like to thank Mr. AK Mishra for his dynamic leadership and assistance to USAID health programs, including IFPS, in UP.

I am proud to be a partner – the US Government, with the government of UP and the government of India – in making a contribution to the reproductive health of women in India’s most populous state.