Transforming Family Planning Outlook and Practice in Egypt : A Rights-Based Approach
Family planning (FP) program contributed to Egypt s progress in reducing infant and maternal mortality and the total fertility and population growth rates. The Arab spring has brought to the forefront long-held aspirations, which can only be fulfil...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2014
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/07/20204671/transforming-family-planning-outlook-practice-egypt-rights-based-approach http://hdl.handle.net/10986/20418 |
| Summary: | Family planning (FP) program
contributed to Egypt s progress in reducing infant and
maternal mortality and the total fertility and population
growth rates. The Arab spring has brought to the forefront
long-held aspirations, which can only be fulfilled by a
clear shift to a rights-based and person-centered family
planning approach and away from an imposed top-down program
with targets for family size and fertility rate. The essence
of a rights-based approach to FP is interacting with people
as individuals with rights to control ones lives, not as a
target of a particular program. The FP program also needs to
determine and mitigate the factors that make it difficult
for the poor, young, and marginalized groups to exercise
rights to receive the services needed. The authors of this
report examined the challenges facing Egypt s FP program
through a human rights lens, exploring whether individuals
and couples are able to exercise their rights to financial
and physical access to good quality FP services. The
research also investigated whether client demand for
services, and the acceptability of those services, is guided
by human rights aspects of service delivery, such as the
rights to information, privacy, confidentiality, method
choice, and the autonomy to choose the number and spacing of
births. This report synthesizes the findings from three
sources: (i) an analysis of legal and ethical codes and
institutions for upholding reproductive rights in Egypt;
(ii) a literature review of past studies and surveys in
Egypt; and (iii) a field study in four governorates, using
quantitative and qualitative methods to assess the
accessibility and quality of FP services in family health
units; the views of clients through in exit interviews; and
the views of community members in focus group discussions
with married women, husbands, and mothers-in-law on
perception of FP, the quality of services, and service
responsiveness to their needs. This study reconfirmed the
need to focus on redressing staff turnover in rural primary
health care (PHC) facilities, as well as improving the
qualifications and skills of existing staff, both key
constraints to quality improvement. |
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