Lauren Van Enk of the Institute for Reproductive Health at Georgetown University presents a study of the involvement of faith-based organizations in family planning, discussing how motivations for involvement in family planning differ among actors, and similarities and differences among FBOs and secular organizations.

1. USING EVIDENCE TO EXPAND CHOICE, EMPOWER WOMEN, AND INVOLVE COMMUNITIES.
FAITH-BASED
ORGANIZATIONS
as PARTNERS in
FAMILY PLANNING
Working Together to Improve Family
Well-being
LAUREN VAN ENK
Institute for Reproductive Health
Georgetown University
January 23, 2016

2. Study Objectives
• Explore the role of the faith sector in improving
maternal and child health (MCH) through
family planning;
• Describe unique contributions of the faith
sector in family planning;
• Understand the current relationships between
FBOs and secular organizations working in
family planning; and
• Identify opportunities for increased
collaboration and more effective partnerships.

3. Afghanistan
Mali
Ethiopia
Kenya
• Faith-based organizations
• Churches
• Non-governmental organizations
• International aid agencies
• Governments
In-depth interviews conducted with respondents from:
Muslim
Protestant
Christian
Orthodox
Catholic
Interfaith
Study Methods

4. Study Report

5. USING EVIDENCE TO EXPAND CHOICE, EMPOWER WOMEN, AND INVOLVE COMMUNITIES.
MOTIVATIONS &
ACTIONS

6. What motivates engagement in
family planning?
“Whether a Muslim is liberal or
conservative, their core values
come from the Koran and
religious teaching. Islam supports
the health of the mother. If we
can show that the mother’s
health is improved by timing and
spacing of pregnancy, we can
make the case. We talk to
Muslims in our own language.”
–Global Muslim FBO
• Maternal and child
health
• Economic development
for the poor

7. What motivates engagement in
family planning?
“Sometimes there is
misconception, the secular world
may just present the attitude that
the church does not support
family planning. This is very
misleading because if there is
any institution that promotes the
family unit, it is the church.” -
Country-based Protestant,
Christian FBO
• Maternal and child
health
• Economic development
for the poor
• Strengthened marriages
• Family harmony
• Spiritual health

8. What motivates engagement in
family planning?
• Maternal and child
health
• Economic development
for the poor
• Strengthened marriages
• Family harmony
• Spiritual health
• Women’s empowerment
• Human rights
• Population/Environment
“My interest in family planning
has always been from a rights
perspective. The health rationale
is an important one, but there is
also a rights rationale.”
– Global secular NGO

9. How is the faith sector engaged in
family planning?
0
10
20
30
Country-based Muslim
Organizations
Country-based
Christian Organizations
Global FBOs
Number of respondents engaged in FP-related activities

10. USING EVIDENCE TO EXPAND CHOICE, EMPOWER WOMEN, AND INVOLVE COMMUNITIES.
COMMUNICATION

11. Language of agreement
“Our mandate is to promote
health. The church’s work in the
family is a very key component
that we deal with. Secondly, we
do recognize that the health of
the mother and the health of the
child literally reflect the health of
the population. So we do have a
lot of programs that focus on the
health of the mother and the
child like family planning.”
–Country-based Christian,
Protestant NGO
• Healthy timing and
spacing of pregnancies
• Family Values
• Responsible parenthood
• Male involvement &
couple communication

12. • Healthy timing and
spacing of pregnancies
• Family Values
• Responsible parenthood
• Male involvement &
couple communication
“It is rare to find a woman in a
health center accompanied by
her husband! It’s the woman
who comes, accompanied by
her children. For a year now, we
have been talking to men about
coming with their wives. We
show the men that even the
imams accompany their wives.
We persuaded them that they
should accompany their wives to
the health centers for prenatal
consultations and vaccinations.
We have found there are men
who are not negative, they don’t
refuse family planning.” –
Country-based Muslim FBO
Language of agreement

13. • Healthy timing and
spacing of pregnancies
• Family Values
• Responsible parenthood
• Male involvement &
couple communication
“Connecting to family values and
putting family planning into the
larger context of the family,
rather than simply as the spacing
of children, is very, very
important. And the whole area
of being able to help -- hopefully,
it’s spouses but also others who
are involved in sexual
relationships -- to communicate
with each other about these
values and not just see this as a
mechanical action. I think that’s
very important and needs to be
spoken about much more in the
international community.”
–Global Christian, Catholic FBO
Language of agreement

14. Language of discord
• Population control
• Limiting births
• Abortion
“We’re trying to avoid controversial
statements like family planning. There’s
not a big difference between family
planning and child spacing
though…But they have different
connotations, details, implications and
methods. There are terms that are
more community friendly - like child
spacing, healthy living - these are
terms which are more acceptable
than the term family planning. In my
community, family planning
unfortunately amounts to birth control
which is against Islamic teaching. –
Country-based Muslim FBO

15. Language of discord
• Population control
• Limiting births
• Abortion
“I think there is an issue of language.
The moment you talk about family
planning, there are still so many, even
in the U.S., who think abortion, a lot
of it is misperceptions and ignorance.
From my perceptive, what helps us is
we don’t do anything without
involving the local community. The
partnership building and listening to
our partners is extremely important.
That dialogue informs us how to
move forward.” – Global Christian,
Protestant FBO

16. USING EVIDENCE TO EXPAND CHOICE, EMPOWER WOMEN, AND INVOLVE COMMUNITIES.
PARTNERSHIP

17. Partnership: Two or more parties working together to
achieve a mutually beneficial outcome that would
have been difficult for each to reach alone.
Mutual
recognition
of the
problem
Design of a
collaborative
effort
Implementation
Institutionali-
zation &
scale-up
“I think one of the issues is to look at the common ground
where all faiths agree on certain principles. For example,
everybody agrees on some family planning methods,
including the Catholics. So that is one area. If we all
agree on a common ground, it becomes easy for
everybody, and everybody feels comfortable. Then also
come up with best practices. Certain methods have
successfully been accepted by the community and there
is tangible research information to prove that it is
something viable, it is practical and can bear fruit.”
- Country-based Muslim religious leader

18. Partnership: Two or more parties working together to
achieve a mutually beneficial outcome that would
have been difficult for each to reach alone.
Mutual
recognition
of the
problem
Design of a
collaborative
effort
Implementation
Institution-
alization &
scale-up
“Rather than construct ad-hoc partnerships with FBOs at
the country level, we wanted to support and strengthen
these country-level partnerships through regional cohesion.
So we brought them together at the regional level. In an
attempt to also be responsive to their needs, we
responded to some of their very concrete demands and
gave them the platform. We tried to facilitate the forum
where they could themselves come with their own
collation of the work they had done on sexual and
reproductive health and population.” –Donor, Global

19. Partnership: Two or more parties working together to
achieve a mutually beneficial outcome that would
have been difficult for each to reach alone.
Mutual
recognition
of the
problem
Design of a
collaborative
effort
Implementation
Institution-
alization &
scale-up
“In Afghanistan under an international donor-funded
project funded project, contraceptive prevalence
more than doubled in three rural areas in one year
after collaborations with religious leaders were
established. This is a solid example of the kind of
partnership than can move healthy family issues
forward. This model is now being scaled up through
technical support to the central and provincial ministry
of public health.” –Donor, Global

20. Lessons
Learned
• Expect that capacity building is a
fundamental activity between partners
• Be attentive to message development
and who delivers the message
• Foster safe spaces
for continued
dialogue

21. USING EVIDENCE TO EXPAND CHOICE, EMPOWER WOMEN, AND INVOLVE COMMUNITIES.
QUESTIONS
What have you learned about effective
ways to communicate about family
planning?
- Key messages
- Messengers
- Communication channels
Are there any circumstances that are
presently keeping you from being more
involved programmatically family
planning?