Strengthening Performance Monitoring and Evaluation of Reproductive Health and Family Planning Programmes in Pakistan,

Hakim, A., Zahir, Z. & Munir, S.
for National Institute of Population Studies (NIPS), Islamabad, October 1999.

Chapters: 1. Background, 2. Reproductive Health/Family Planning Indicators, 3. Methods and Materials, 4. Quality and Coverage of Data, 5. Results of Data Collection in Project Area, 6. Conclusion and Recommendations.

The Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (ESCAP) launched a project titled "Strengthening Performance Monitoring and Evaluation Systems for Measuring the Progress of Reproductive Health and Family Planning Programme" in Pakistan, and NIPS was selected to initiate the pilot study. This report gives the details of the study conducted.
The main objective of the project was to experiment collection of data on reproductive health and family planning indicators from various sources so that a simple, internationally comparable set of indicators could be developed. The study was conducted in district Jhelum of the Punjab province during 1998-99. Service outlets belonging to Health and Population Welfare departments were included for collecting data, and the service providers of these departments collected information from female clients visiting their service outlets.
After examining the existing MIS of Health and Population Welfare Program and taking into account the ICPD 1994 recommendations, NIPS identified a list of indicators for monitoring the performance of reproductive health and family planning services. These indicators included monitoring ICPD goals on reproductive health; policies related to reproductive health; family planning; maternal and child health; reproductive tract infections; sexually transmitted diseases; unmet needs; quality of care, coverage and access; and demographic, social and economic indicators. The report also pointed out that by using the same methodologies of service statistics and cross sectional survey that have been used for the current study, and through requisite training of service providers and proper monitoring and supervision, information on the additional indicators can be obtained from other areas of Pakistan as well.

Key words: Reproductive health, Family planning, Health, Population welfare, maternal health, child health, Reproductive tract infections, and Sexually transmitted diseases.