Strategies for Family Planning Promotion
Phyllis Tilson Piotrow · 1993
Family planning (FP) programs must influence entire populations but the success of these programs depends upon private individual actions. The information education and communication (IEC) component of FP programs is critical therefore in creating awareness increasing knowledge building approval and influencing behavior. This paper reviews the most important lessons learned about IEC campaigns during the past 2 decades. The quality of interpersonal communication between client and provider greatly influences a clients willingness to use the services offered as does the provision through counseling of enough information to make informed choices. Training can improve the quality of communication and counseling in a program and IEC campaigns can encourage open discussion about FP among families and in the community to the point where trained peer motivators can be used effectively. The mass media can create FP awareness and increase acceptance. Well-designed mass media campaigns can also stimulate behavioral changes in the audience. Despite governmental reluctance most people want more FP information from the mass media. Mass media campaigns can complement interpersonal communication efforts to great advantage and can use entertainment (enter-educate) techniques to reach large audiences. IEC programs can be designed with built-in cost saving and cost recovery strategies to minimize costs while maximizing impact. These strategies include the sale of commercial-quality project materials the use of corporate sponsors for enter-educate products negotiating entertainment fees with professionals and negotiating for free air time. Using IEC managers rather than technicians and purchasing materials from the private sector can also save costs as can using the initially more expensive mass media which can result in cost savings in the longterm. Cost-effectiveness measurements are being devised but since they depend upon many variables they may not be easily transferred from one project to another. IEC programs should be designed through a process which moves from analysis to design to development pretesting and revision to implementation monitoring and assessment and finally to review and replanning. Objectives established at the beginning of the program should form the basis for later evaluation. Most FP programs benefit from technical assistance in setting up an IEC component. Program issues which donor agencies should consider include 1) achieving immediate positive results and building longterm institutional capability 2) training and technical assistance 3) integrating FP services and IEC 4) using the private sector 5) dealing with opposition and controversy and 6) appropriate donor support. Specific recommendations are included for each of the issues presented in this paper.