Deepen integration
Deepen integration of family planning into national health policies, strategies and plans, including primary health care and universal health coverage
Advocacy and policy dialogue is one of the modes of engagement that UNFPA uses to deliver results. This work aims to foster an enabling environment for family planning and to secure sustained investments in family planning programming. UNFPA advocates for family planning to be fully integrated into national health policies, strategies, plans and guidelines including primary health care and universal health coverage. Integration improves value-for-money and ensures that where women and girls interact with health and other relevant services, they are more likely to access the services they need. UNFPA advocates for family planning to be high on the national development agenda and supports countries to integrate family planning across laws, policies, financing, financial protection and regulatory and accountability systems and frameworks.
PRIORITY ACTION 1.1: Advocate for and support the integration of family planning in policies and national development agendas and as a priority and a key cross-cutting intervention for national development
Programmatic options
1.1.1 Context analysis: Analyse the social, economic and political context of the FP landscape and generate evidence using available tools, e.g. Impact 40 for estimating Transformative Results Impact and Costs, Spectrum, SRAT, Impact2, Impact now, and others.
1.1.2 Equity gap analysis: Develop subnational-level analysis to assess equity gaps in access to family planning services with a focus on marginalized groups and vulnerable populations.
1.1.3 FP determinants: Support research and analysis, and foster exchange of knowledge and evidence around family planning determinants in countries that have low or very low fertility levels.
1.1.4 Multisectoral approaches: Expand research, knowledge sharing and South-South cooperation on multisectoral approaches that integrate family planning.
1.1.5 Access: Support countries to strengthen policies, legislation and accountability mechanisms that guarantee universal access to family planning across the life course as an integral component of sexual and reproductive health and rights.
1.1.6 FP in non-health initiatives: Engage in multisectoral dialogue to further embed the integration of family planning interventions in non-health-related initiatives across the development sector.
1.1.7 Government commitment: Support the establishment of political will and commitment through new or existing inclusive governance mechanisms (reproductive health commodity security committees; reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health groups; GFF platforms, etc.).
1.1.8 Global and regional accountability: Strengthen global, and regional accountability mechanisms and tools to galvanize government financial commitments and policy adherence on family planning.
1.1.9 National accountability: Promote and advocate for the use of social, professional and administrative accountability mechanisms by governments, civil society organizations, professional associations and academia through accreditation processes, maintenance of professional standards and quality improvement methods and mechanisms.
1.1.10 Stewardship for accountability: Facilitate stewardship for the design and implementation of accountability by national stakeholders to ensure adherence to international standards as well as sufficient resources (financial, human, infrastructure, equipment) to deliver quality family planning services and information. Accountability entails bringing attention and redress for unethical behaviour, abuse and other rights violations in the health care system related to SRHR and in particular, family planning, e.g. through clinical audit, public consultation, exit surveys and supportive supervision checklists.
1.1.11 Private sector services: Support the development of laws and policies and regulatory frameworks including the establishment of quality-assured commodity distribution and accountability mechanisms around the role and engagement of the private sector in family planning service provision.
1.1.12 DRR and climate strategies: Advocate for stronger integration of family planning into preparedness and response to climate change and disaster risk reduction, National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs), as well as Climate-Response Strategies.
The interventions under "Deepen integration" contribute to the UNFPA strategic plan output “policy and accountability”.
Acceleration Plan Output 1: An enabling legal and policy environment is improving and family planning is a higher and more sustained priority at country level
The strategic plan refers to integrating sexual and reproductive health – including gender-based violence prevention – into national policies, development frameworks and universal health coverage. The acceleration plan adapts this to the area of family planning with an output on creating the conditions for success: “An enabling legal and policy environment is improving and family planning is a higher and more sustained priority at country level.”
RESOURCE: Related text from the family planning strategy
UNFPA will advocate for and support countries to invest in comprehensive sexual and reproductive health, particularly family planning, to be fully integrated into relevant national health policies, strategies, plans and guidelines – including primary health care and universal health coverage plans.
Integration improves value-for-money and ensures that where women and girls interact with health and other relevant services, they are more likely to access the services they need. This allows people to access a wide range of services in a more convenient way. Integration is also an important strategy for reaching those left behind and allowing people to access health services across the care continuum. With partners across many sectors, UNFPA will advocate for family planning (and broader sexual and reproductive health care) to be included at the centre of the national development agenda and given more priority as a contribution to national development, women’s empowerment and economic growth.
UNFPA will focus on ensuring that every opportunity to support women and girls to access family planning information and services is fully utilized across the health services, within the health system more broadly and within its own programming. Working with other partners such as the World Health Organization, UNFPA will advocate for and provide technical support to, boost country capacity to better design, plan, manage and evaluate integrated health services using a primary health care approach. This requires integration of sexual and reproductive health and rights at policy, service delivery and across sectors (e.g. agriculture, economic sectors, education, environment and gender).
UNFPA will support integration of health services through taking a life-course approach to sexual and reproductive health, promoting the integration of family planning services and information at high-impact entry points including maternal health, HIV and STI services and gender-based violence prevention and response services.