The primary goal of the UNFPA Reproductive Health (RH)/Family Planning (FP) Project was to assist the Government of China in implementing the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Plan of Action in the area of RH and women’s empowerment ensuring a comprehensive and integrated client-oriented reproductive health services.
UNFPA has been working in China in the area of RH/FP since the 1980s. The previous RH/FP project (CPR/98/P01) was implemented during 1998 to 2002 in 32 counties in 22 provinces, with the budget of USD 14 million. The project mainly worked with Marie Stopes International in Australia (MSI Australia), National Population and Family Planning Commission (NPFPC - the then State Family Planning Commission) and the Ministry of Health (MOH). The impact of the project was assessed through baseline and endline surveys funded by DFID and undertaken in collaboration with the University of Southampton. Survey analysis provided positive evidence of changes in provision and utilisation of reproductive health services.
Country Programme (2006-10)
The UNFPA Sixth Country Programme (CP6) was launched in 2006 in the same 30 project counties where the Fifth Country Programme (CP5) was implemented. The CP6 is regarded as an extension of the CP5 which was in operation for only about 2.5 years, between July 2003 and December 2005. A few additional components in the CP6 include: strategies to promoting full and correct awareness and reducing social stigma related to HIV/AIDS, changing the attitudes towards risky sexual behaviour among young people, migration and gender roles. The emphasis is on two main aspects: (i) improving and sustaining reproductive health and wellbeing of individuals and couples through client-friendly and quality service provisions and (ii) population and sustainable development, especially with a focus on improving women’s status and gender equity. An additional feature of the CP6 evaluation is the inclusion of 10 control counties (non-project) in order to effectively gauge the actual impact of the programme in the project counties. The period of intervention for the CP6 was five years with effect from January 2006 until December 2010. The baseline survey for the project counties was conducted in November 2005 and that for the control counties was conducted in March 2006. The baseline surveys administered four sets of questionnaires to the target population household, individual (never-married and married males aged 15-59 years along with married and never-married females aged 15-49 years), service providers and facility questionnaires.
Dr James Brown (Institute of Education)