First SMBBMU International Conference on Family Planning was held at the Latif Auditorium Chandka Medical College, Larkana, on 26 September 2024, the World Contraception Day. This landmark event was graced by Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho, the honorable Minister of Health and Population Welfare, Government of Sindh.
Population is the cross cutting issue challenging the achievement of all Sustainable Development Goals and the theme of the conference “Family Planning: the way forward to a sustainable world” underscores the pivotal role family planning can play in achieving all the goals, particularly those related to poverty, hunger, mother and child health, quality education, gender equality and environmental sustainability. This was stated by the vice chancellor of Smbbmu, Dr Nusrat Shah in her welcome address.
Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho appreciated the vice chancellor for organising the first international family planning conference in the historical city of Larkana. She said Sindh is the only province where we have combined health and population welfare departments for better coordination and service delivery and this should be replicated by other provinces too. She highlighted that the current policies of NFC award which are based on distribution of resources on the basis of population are not helping our population welfare programs, and may lead to further population growth particularly in Sindh and Balochistan. She said the federal government will have to review its policies for equitable distribution of resources to all provinces and for improving the outcomes of population welfare programs. The health department is trying to ensure universal access to reproductive healthcare services and to provide commodities of family planning. The Child Nutrition Act has been brought to prevent malnutrition and under nutrition and this will help improve child health and development in Sindh. She emphasised the right of every child to live and thrive, to have a good health and education, to be loved and cared for, and that a couple should decide to have children only if they can provide these basic rights.
Mr Abdullah Khan, Secretary PWD Baluchistan, talked about Pakistan's rapid population growth currently ranking fifth globally and highlighted the limited resources allocated to Baluchistan on the basis of population. The PWD is trying to enhance procurement of commodities and improve service delivery in remote areas of Baluchistan.
Pakistan has not made any significant progress in provision of family planning coverage as the mCPR is still around 37% for modern contraceptives. This was stated by Dr Zulfiqar A Bhutta, the Robert Harding Chair in Global Child Health and Policy SickKids Center for Global Child Health, Toronto and Founding Director Centre of Excellence in Women and Child Health, AKU. He highlighted the inequities in access to FP services due to which the CPR is much less for younger women below 18 years of age, and for poor, illiterate and rural women. He said although rural-urban disparity has reduced in Sindh, overall the FP uptake remains around 35%. Until and unless we reduce social inequities and integrate FP with maternal and child health, immunisation, infant nutrition, girl education and economic empowerment of women, we will not be able to achieve the goal of 57% CPR by 2030.
Dr Anita Zaidi emphasised that FP does not just save lives but it transforms them. We believe every woman and girl is worthy of opportunity, health and dignity. We know that when lives of individual women improve, everyone’s lives improve and therefore investing in FP and in broader women’s health issues helps them to better plan their lives, unlock their economic power and achieve a gender equal world. Dr Anita is the President of Gender Equality Division at Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, at Seatle USA.
Pakistan is currently the 5th most populous country in the world and in 26 years it will be the 4th most populous country. Although we have achieved some success in Sindh of improving the CPR from 33% to 41%, we need to reach the target of 57% by 2030 and we can only hope to achieve this if we use multi sectoral approach where departments of health, education, P&D, Women Development, Youth Affairs all work together with PWD. This was stated by Dr Talib Lashari, the Technical Adviser for CIP and Focal Person for FP2030.
Mr Anthony Daly emphasized that a woman's freedom to decide if and when to marry or have children, as well as to live free from violence and harmful practices, is essential for her empowerment and rights. He noted that family planning not only facilitates these choices but also enhances educational outcomes for families and helps keep girls in schools. He is the Technical Advisor Family Planning at Asia-Pacific Regional Office, United Nations Population Fund.
Dr Shershah Syed emphasized that every hospital should have a dedicated space for male counseling on family planning, highlighting the importance of engaging men in reproductive health discussions.
Sumita Banerji stated that we are committed to ensuring that every woman and girl worldwide has access to voluntary and rights-based family planning services by 2030. She is the MD, FP2030, Asia Hub.
Dr Amanda Sturm, Obstetrician and Gynaecologist from Sweden spoke about the role of midwives in family planning while Dr Martin Verblom, a laparoscopic gynaecological surgeon spoke on the role of youth in family planning.
Apart from the Inauguration ceremony, the conference included three high level Panel discussions on 1) Policies, Services and Capacity; 2) Postpartum and Post-abortion family planning in Sindh; 3) Role of Academia and Youth engagement for family planning in Sindh.
The program of the conference also included two Pre-conference workshops, a Poster Competition, a Plenary Session and an Exhibition Hall for development partners to showcase their projects and materials for the conference participants.
During the concluding session, the vice chancellor Dr Nusrat Shah expressed her gratitude to the Organizing Committee, Collaborating Partners including PWD, UNFPA, Pathfinder, Jhpiego, WHO, Ipas, Hands, Greenstar Social Marketing, Vital Pakistan, SRSO, DKT Pakistan and Peace Foundation, the keynote speakers and Panelists, and all participants for attending the conference.
The conference witnessed a significant turnout of around 650 participants including faculty members, healthcare providers, LHVs, LHWs, nurses, midwives, postgraduate and undergraduate students and students of girls college, Larkano.
The event concluded with announcement by Dr Talib Lashari for laying down the foundation of Academic Faculty Members Working Group and a Youth Club for students.
