Full-time workers reach out to the villages

The Philippine Commission on Population (Popcom) has fielded 2721 fulltime outreach workers (FTOWs). The FTOWs are the outcome of a shift from a clinic-based, motivation-oriented family planning effort to the Rural Outreach Program which is part of the new Total Integrated Development Approach (TIDA). Organizationally, the workers are under local government supervision and their purpose is to make the family planning program more responsive to community needs. This article profiles the average FTOW, describes recruitment and training procedures and discusses problems of the program -- funding, transportation, inadequate training, lack of educational materials, shortage of contraceptive supplies -- and possible solutions.     

Satisfied users clubs: family planning acceptors as model agents of the program

The National Population Program in the Philippines has encouraged family planning acceptors to shift from their passive role as recipients of family planning services into an active role as program participants. In the mid 1970s the Commission on Population (Popcom) began setting up satisfied users clubs in various regions of the country with the aid of the Ministry of Social Services and Development (MSSD). Other government institutions like the Ministry of Labor and Employment (MOLE) formed similar family planning groups. So did private agencies participating in the Program. There were indications at that time that community based family planning clubs could help the Program in informing couples about family planning and in motivating them to practice contraception. In 1977 a study conducted by the University of the Philippines Institute of Maternal Clinic found that family planning acceptors in Dumaguete City received social and psychological support from local barrio women's clubs. A 1978 Community Outreach Survey indicated that full time outreach workers (FTOWs) found statisfied users clubs helpful in increasing the number of new acceptors in their areas and in bringing down the number of family planning dropouts. Once a decision to create a club is made, club organizers meet with the barangay captain and his council to get their approval and seek their cooperation in inviting people to join the proposed club. Once the approval is given known family planning users in the community or mothers of reproductive age are invited to attend a community assembly. Of 59 clubs surveyed, only 10 had a formal constitution and bylaws. All clubs elected their officers and conducted monthly meetings which lasted from 2-4 hours. The main selling proposition of the clubs is the involvement of members in nonfamily planning activities like income generating schemes, skills training, nutrition seminars, and immunization of children. 81% of the officers of all 59 clubs were family planning acceptors. The majority of officers had undergone voluntary sterilization. Only 8 of the 59 clubs considered themselves single purpose clubs committed to the promotion of family planning. The other 51 were multipurpose organizations, with both family planning and nonfamily planning activities. In the area of family planning, the club's objectives were to increase family planning acceptors, disseminate family planning information, and maintain current users.     

NFP promotion in the Philippines: all program components covered

At least 50 of the 105 agencies in the Philippines listed in the "Directory of Agencies with Population Activities" are actively participating in the promotion of natural family planning (NFP). Of these, 40 offer instruction on its use, 22 provide training to clinic personnel or field workers, 19 conduct information/education/communication (IEC) activities, and 6 undertake research. The Population Center Foundation's (PCF's) Information Support to Population Projects (ISP) has prepared a preliminary inventory of programs and projects on NFP, covering some of those that were done in recent years, are being implemented, or have been proposed. Some projects described in the inventory are reviewed. Recent research or research proposals are showhow related, all leading to how the method can be effectively promoted and how couples can be taught its proper use. Instruction on NFP appears in all training activities of Popcom's regional offices, particularly in their refresher courses. Program managers are being trained in managing and monitoring activities to promote the method. In 1980 outreach workers, doctors, nurses, and midwives were trained by Popcom to motivate couples to practice the method and to teach them how to use it correctly. That same year, Popcom's office in the Ilocos region introduced the rhythm dial calendar, a simplified version of the rhythm slide rule. The Ministry of Health National Family Planning Office incorporates natural family planning instruction in its training seminars for the Ministry's health personnel in the regions. As in training, all regional offices of Popcom promote NFP along with other methods that they make available to prospective acceptors. This is in keeping with the program's "cafeteria approach" to family planning. In 1982 Popcom began intensifying the provision of services in NFP, allocating around 4 million pesos to preparations for its effective promotion. In support of service delivery efforts are IEC activities such as the development, production, and distribution of brochures and other reading material on NFP, schoolroom instruction, and lectures. The intensification of IEC efforts in the private sector to promote the modern and scientific techniques of NFP is most clearly evident in a fairly recent seminar sponsored by the Communication Foundation for Asia. Program agencies with activities in natural family planning are listed.     

Family planning as preventive health measure

The link between health and family planning efforts in the Philippines goes back to the beginnings of the National Population Program. In this interview, Dr. Dumindin of the Ministry of Health (MOh) discusses the impact of family planning on health. The family planning program of the MOH, since its inception in 1970, has undergone expansion and taken new initiatives and directions to meet the changing needs of the target clientele. Family planning information, education, and motivation is provided and maintained during routine prenatal, natal, and postnatal clinic and field activities. As of January 1986, the MOH had a total of 2100 clinics--rural health units, medical centers, hospitals, mobile clinics, and special clinics--all over the country. It is estimated that the Ministry's family planning activities have averted around a million births. It is hoped to extend the coverage of the programs to areas that have not been reached before, through further community involvement, by enlisting the participation of more workers in the community, training them on integrated health and family planning services, setting up more service facilities and clinic extensions, and by improving contraceptive use-effectiveness. Hopefully, the Philippine people will become less program-dependent and more self-motivated, and they will recognize the need for birth spacing, birth limiting, and total health care--not as suggested from the outside, but coming from within themselves.     

Comprehensive services at Fabella Center

The Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital Comprehensive Family Planning Center was the 1st family planning center to conduct minilaparotomy in the Philippines. It was also the 1st center to conduct research on family planning and to offer training in family planning to nurses, doctors, midwives, and medical students. The center is funded by the Philippine government with about 85% of hospital funds going to salaries of the staff. Supplementing the funding are medicine, equipment, and subsidies for sterilization given by the Commission on Population (Popcom). Research on chemical sterilization requires patients to take oral contraception (OC) or use the condom while under observation for about 4 months. In the case of female patients, this means until the fallopian tubes have been blocked due to the injection of an opaque solution. The patients are then checked for effects on health, sexual practices, and the regularity of menstruation. Dr. Apelo expects to implement this new sterilization method within 5 years. The center's objective is to support the National Population Program in its effort to reduce the country's population growth rate and promote family welfare. When the center was started, it occupied only 1 room of the hospital and was staffed by 1 full time doctor, 4 nurses, 4 midwives, 2 social workers, and 3 support staff. After 1 year of operation, the center recruited only 75 family planning acceptors. Information about the center's family planning services spread solely by word of mouth. During the 1st half of 1982, the center recruited 3490 acceptors of surgical and nonsurgical contraception, representing 96.94% of its 3600 target for the period. Minilaparotomy had the highest number of acceptors, 1742 or 49.92% of the total number of acceptors during the period. This was followed by the IUD with 1356 acceptors, OC, 245 acceptors; and other methods, 147 acceptors. In information and education, the center had 1882 motivational activities consisting of group discussions, ward lectures, field lectures, and mothers' classes. In training, the center conducted 10 courses, representing 100% of its target for the whole year. It trained doctors in performing voluntary surgical contraception and paramedics in assisting doctors in sterilization operations. The training courses were conducted under a subsidized contract with Popcom. The center also offers training in IUD insertion. In research, the center is active in investigating prospects for new contraceptive applications in the Philippine setting.     

Ilocos region: BSPO paramedics: training in Abra pays off

The study entitled "the comprehensive Baragay Medical System in Arba: An Evaluation" analyzed the performance of trained paramedics and found that the effectiveness of barangay service point officers (BSPOs) as outreach workers depeded on: the knowledge and skills they acquired after traning, which helped them meet the medical needs of community residents; their acceptability to the community; and their positive attitude toward their job. The study indicated that adquate training for the job was crucial to the effective performance of outreach workers. The study compared the performance fo BSPO paramedics and BSPO nonparamedics in metting the health care and family planning needs of residents of the communities the served. BSPO paramedics fared much better as outreach workers in the tasks they were trained for -- rendering services in family planning and health care -- than BSPO nonparamedics wo were not given that kind of training. The study was conducted in the towns of Sallapadan, Pilar, and Danglas for BSPO paramedics and in Manabo, Villaviciosa, and La Paz for BSPO nonparamedics. Interviewed were a sample group of married adults in the areas, 15 BSPO paramedics, and 15 BSPO nonparamedics. The BSPO paramedics had undergone training in preventive medicine, environmental sanitation, and treatment of minor illnesses. The were taught advanced first aid techniques, over the cunter dispensing of medicines, and basic laboratory analysis. The nonparamedics were not trained in these functins. The residents preferred to approach BSPO paramedics for both family planning and medical servies, and more community members also derived the "highest degreee of satisfaction" from the paramedics' services. The BSPO paramedics also served more family planning clients and provided community residents more kinds of medical services. These included medical checkup, the distribution and sale of medicines, curing illnesses, and assisting in child delivery. In terms of job satisfaction, 13 out of every 15 BSPO paramedics interviewed indicated that they were "very satisfied" with their jobs, while only 6 of 15 nonparamedics gave the same rating. The survey findings suggest that the Arba Comprehensive Barangay Medical System can be a viable model for outreach workers in remote communities.     

Basic policies of the Philippine Population Program

This history of the Philippine Population Commission, which was created in 1969, is summarized. In 1970 President F.E. Marcos defined the government's task in this area as: 1) educating the people on the urgent need for population control; 2) disseminating knowledge on birth control techniques; and 3) providing facilities, especially in rural areas. Funding began in 1971. The 4 basic policies are noncoercion, integration, multiagency participation, and the partnership of the public and private sectors. The noncoercion policy means that all birth control techniques are offered and couples are free to use or reject whatever they wish. This has probably slowed the spread of family planning, but has also minimized opposition. Family planning has never been the domain of 1 agency but has been implemented through many agencies working together. Now it is being implemented through total community development plans, of which family planning is merely 1 component. This approach puts irrigation workers, agricultural development workers, and many others on the family planning team. private agencies have also had an important role to play in the development of the total program. For the past 5 years these have been mainly voluntary sociocivic and health associations whose interests are very close to or naturally related to family planning. Now the entry of business into the Population Program through the commercial contraceptive marketing program has enlarged the role of the private sector in the diffusion of family planning products and services. It is possible that the partnership between the public and private sectors may soon be based on segmentation of the target population with government agencies going deep into rural areas while private organizations concentrate on urban and adjacent rural areas.     

Outreach: helping achieve coordination in the field

The outreach officials of the National Population Program of the Philippines, with its 4 basic functions of research, training, information-education-communication, and clinic services, are trying to solve pressing problems which have been an outgrowth of developments of the early 1970s when population and family planning concepts were integrated into other government programs. Given the task of attacking these problems and coordinating the whole program was the newly organized Commission on Population (Popcom). The organizations which had their own programs cooperated with the government agencies. Initially thought of as workable, the early strategy was soon found to be inadequate, and in July 1975, Popcom implemented an integrated development approach in population work. The strategy is complex, and as it undergoes refinement, the program may well profit from the experiences or lessions gained by a number of agencies in carrying out population/development activities. The approach used by the Office of Nonformal Education of the Philippines Rural Reconstruction Movement is seen as potentially helpful to the outreach project in developing 3 types of leadership in order to properly integrate or link private and public agencies, and ensure a continuing development program: political, educational, and technical. It is stressed that outsiders can help, but it is the community which must basically do the job themselves. So different government technicians are trained so that they can effectively train other people from the community, and do it in such a way that the program will be continuing and self-releasing.     

A fresh look at family planning communication

As a step toward development of a national information, education, and communication (IEC) plan, a reassessment of such efforts practiced by the agencies involved was undertaken. A paper published in 1978 by the Research Utilization Unit of the Population Information Division, Population Center Foundation, reviewed materials used and accounts of experience in conceptualizing and communicating family planning messages by 12 private and public sector agencies. The most common concepts employed by the agencies were small family size, responsible parenthood, family welfare, community and national development, birth spacing, delayed marriage, contraceptive use-effectiveness, "manliness," delayed 1st pregnancy, value and rights of children, human behavior and social environment, and population dynamics. Most of the messages were conceptualized and developed through formal and informal consultation with field staff. The need to consider the specific needs of target audiences was considered crucial, and thus decentralization of IEC production was recommended. Such decentralization has been a goal of the Philippine program since 1976, but the effort has been hampered by lack of local training and resources, and of studies to support successful implementation. Mass and mixed media approaches were found to be used by most of the agencies, although a reliance on interpersonal approaches was found to be most prevalent in rural areas. Among recommendations for policy makers were development of a systematized data base for IEC materials, regional capabilities in research and development, and studies of funding and existing resources.     

Do incentives matter? – Evaluation of a family planning program in India

Indian Family Planning programs in the past haveintroduced a number of approaches such as providingmonetary benefits, and motivational programs toimprove contraceptive use among rural illiteratewomen. Under the Ammanpettai family welfare program,the Melatur PHC administered three program typesinvolving a combination of monetary and motivationalapproaches to improve contraceptive use in threetreatment areas. The program was introduced duringJanuary 1989 and was simultaneously discontinued aftera period of two years. The present evaluation wasconducted in 1994. Data from a random sample of 933non-sterilized women at the time of social surveyusing a questionnaire approach is used in this study. The implementation of incentive programs in asocio-economically homogenous population has resultedin an increase in the likelihood of current ofcontraceptive use. The results of this study suggestthat motivational programs are more likely to improvelong term use of temporary family planning methodsthan cash incentive programs. One implication of ourfinding is that motivational programs should provide peer based family planning education and training incommunity work to contact persons who make door todoor visits to promote family planning programs.     

Upholding the freedom of couples to use a method of their choice

A recent review of the Philippine Population Program's 5-year plan, ended in December 1982, showed that in 1980, natural family planning (NFP) users were only about 12.5% of couples practicing family planning. This figure doubled by 1982. Based on these responses the decision was made to intensify the NFP program as early as 1982. The 1st step was to put more money into the NFP program. The program includes the modern scientific techniques such as cervical mucus, basal body temperature, and sympto-thermal. The program also will fund the training of doctors and other clinic personnel and the production and distribution of appropriate training and information material. Other family planning methods, such as sterilization, oral contraception (OC) and the condom, also will be promoted. Promotion of NFP will depend on the choice of the family planning practitioners themselves. The program's community based services are being intensified. NFP, together with the other family planning methods such as sterilization and OC, will always be made available to couples in the community based services. All agencies in the population and family planning program will be promoting NFP. Knights of Columbus doctors have been invited to assist the program and share their own training modules for the training of trainers. An agreement has been entered into with the Gabriel M. Reyes Memorial Foundation based in Aklan. The goal is for trainers who need further knowledge and skills in NFP to learn from the foundation's wealth of organized orientation and training techniques in NFP. NFP is emphasized at this time because it is acceptable to a great number of couples.     

Women in development: the road toward liberation

Although women in the Philippines traditionally enjoyed considerable independence and equality, 3 centuries of Spanish colonialism greatly effaced their rights. The importance of the role women can play in development was highlighted at a recent consultation-workshop jointly sponsored by the FAO and the Population Center Foundation. Although 82% of Philippine women are literate, female education is accorded much less importance than that of males, and girls are often forced to discontinue their schooling early to help in housework. Rural Filipino women marry younger than their urban counterparts, and their fertility is correspondingly higher. Only 13% of rural women practice birth control. Participation of Filipino women in community affairs is mostly in social activities, although a few privileged women have gained elective office. The legal status of Filipino women is inferior to that of men in the areas of mixed marriage, choice of residence, parental authority, property rights, right to work, court suits, legal separation, and widow's rights. Labor force participation among women is only 1/2 that of men. As of 1975 only 0.6% of women workers occupied administrative or managerial positions. The National Commission of the Role of Filipino Women was created in 1975 as a coordinating body to promote the advancement of women in all levels of society to enable them to contribute more effectively to the development process. Specific programs carried out by government and private sector groups include extension education for women, basic skills training for income generating projects, community development, and population and family planning projects.     

Sex,counseling, and the young industrial worker

The Population Center Foundation (PCF) has begun promoting greater awareness of the implications of adolescent fertility among Filipino teenagers. PCF has developed an information and counseling program on adolescent fertility attuned to the youth's particular conditions and tastes. Almost all teenagers preferred to talk with their peers rather than with adults or professionals, especially on intimate topics. The export processing zone (EPZ) is 1 of the most popular government strategies for pursuing an export-led industrialization. The Bataan EPZ, the site for 1 implementation of PCF's program for young workers, is the country's prime industrial estate. The presence of dormitories in the Bataan zone has given greater opportunities for interaction among workers; closer relationships are built, and the degree of trust and intimacy required for honest discussions of sexual problems is established. The Bataan program aims to assist the EPZs, the regional and local offices of the Commission on Population, and the Ministry of Labor and Employment in meeting the family planning needs of the zones' teenage workers. An information-education-communication campaign has been launched to get support for the sexuality counseling services offered by various institutions in this program. Those who take part in the adolescent sexuality counseling training program are asked to share their experience during feedback sessions.     

Eastern Visayas: profile of the region's volunteer outreach worker

Volunteer outreach workers in Eastern Visayas (Region 8) who tend to remain in the Philippine Population Program are able to plan for the welfare of the family, are seriously concerned about the welfare of the community, are traditional in their beliefs about family decision making, are moderately innovative, and are relatively dissatisfied with community life. The research report submitted to the regional office of the Commission on Population (Popcom) by the Regional Research Center for Population, Leyte State College, indicated that Popcom recognizes the importance of community based fieldworkers in the delivery of its services. The study was conducted in line with efforts to improve the system of recruiting volunteer workers and to develop a more effective service delivery scheme. The researchers randomly selected a representative sample of volunteer workers--265 active and 86 inactive--from the provinces of Leyte, Southern Leyte, Eastern Samar, Western Samar and Northern Samar, the subprovince of Biliran, and the cities of Tacloban, Ormoc, and Calbayog. The active volunteer worker of Eastern Visayas is female, between 36-40 years old, married, and the mother of 3-5 children. She also considers the size of her family to be "just right." The volunteer worker believes the father is the prinicipal decision maker in the family and that parents should always be consulted on matters concerning their children. The inactive volunteer worker is also female, in the same age bracket, married, and with 3-5 children, and she also does not want to have additional children. She is more innovative and more receptive to change than the active volunteer worker. She is more satisfied with community life, is modern in her beliefs as to who is the authority in the family, and believes that children also should have a part in making family decisions. Mobility in terms of residence is an important factor in the decision of the volunteer worker to remain in or drop out of the program.     

Philippines: decentralized approach shows results

In the Philippines several steps have been taken to meet the challenge of increasing population growth. Commencing with the Republic Act 6365, known as the Population Act (1971) program directives focus on achieving and maintaining population levels most conducive to the national welfare. In 1978 a Special Committee was constituted by the President to review the population program. Pursuant to the Committee's findings certain changes were adopted. The thrust is now towards longterm planning to ensure a more significant and perceptible demographic impact of development programs and policies. Increasing attention is paid to regional development and spatial distribution in the country. The 1978-82 Development Plan states more clearly the interaction between population and development. The National Economic and Development Authority, the central policy and planning agency of the government, takes charge of formulation and coordinating the broader aspects of population policy and integrating population with socioeconomic plans and policies. At present the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) is implementing a project known as the Population/Development Planning and Research (PDPR) project with financial support from the UN Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA). This project promotes and facilitates the integration of the population dimension in the planning process. It does this by maintaining linkages and instituting collaborative mechanisms with the different NEDA regional offices and sectoral ministries. It also trains government planners in ways of integrating population concerns into the development plan. PDPR promotes the use of population and development research for planning purposes and policy formation. The Philippine Development Plan, 1978-82, recognized that an improvement in the level of 1 sector reinforces the performance of the other sectors. Since the establishment of the National Population Program 12 years ago, population and family planning have been successfully integrated with various development sectors, notably, labor, health, and education. Through the policies of integration, multiagency participation, and partnership of the public and private sectors, the Commission on Population uses existing development programs of government and private organizations as vehicles for family planning information and services and shares the responsibility of implementing all facets of the population program with various participating agencies in the government and private sector.     

Central Mindanao: selling family planning informally

A research study was conducted in Central Mindanao, Philippines, to evaluate the effectiveness of " selling" informally the idea of family planning to potential acceptors. The study, entitled "the Extent of Involvement of Satisfied Acceptors Clubs/Satisfied Users Clubs" was conducted for the regional office of the Commission on Population (Popcom) by the Notre Dame University Socioeconomic Research Center in Cotabato City. Organized by fulltime outreach workers (FTOWs), the clubs are concerned primarily with the promotion of family planning. The first such club in the region was organized in 1979. Currently, the clubs are linked with other development agencies. The study's respondents were 200 continuing users of a family planning method and were members of the clubs in Illigan City and Cotabato City. Respondents were mostly women (191 or 95.5%), in their early 30s (31%), had 4 children on the average, had reached high school, and belonged to low income families. On the average, respondents had been practicing family planning for around 4 years and 7 months. They were aware of or knowledgeable about the condom, oral contraception (OC), IUDs, rhythm, tubal ligation, vasectomy, and withdrawal. Some of them were aware of injection, abstinence, foam, and the diaphragm. The majority of respondents indicated they had tried other family planning methods before changing to the method they were using. The primary reason for method change was the desire to use a more effective method. The respondents became club members either by being recruited or by applying for membership on their own. Motivating clients to practice contraception was the club's primary activity. 133 club members (66.5%) "claimed to have successfully motivated persons/couples to practice family planning." Among the problems encountered by the clubs, the indifference of people toward the family planning program appeared to bethe most serious from the respondents' perspective. Inactivity of some members was cited as the 2nd most serious problem. The study concluded that despite problems the clubs had been "fairly successful" in helping Popcom promote family planning.     

To the barrios] The new course charted by the national population program

In order to reduce the Philippine birthrate to 2% by 1980, the number of rural women practicing contraception must be trebeled. To facilitate such an effort, a large-scale reorganization and reorientation in all areas of family planning activity--delivery, training, research, information, education, and communication--is proposed, shifting the delivery of family planning services from clinics to the 36,000 barrio bases. A goal of 16,000 extension workers in family planning is set for 1976; these workers will be the ones to make the initial contacts with potential acceptors. Then full-time family planning workers will try to make potential acceptors into bonefide ones, giving advice or prescribing the method and providing follow-up. Family planning workers will be supervised by nurses and midwives in health stations, who in turn will be supervised by the physician in the rural health unit. Acceptability among community residents is the most vital characteristic of a family planning worker, with the country's 27,000 hilots (birth attendents) seen as leading candidates. Attracting and training manpower in the field is a major challenge, as is lack of personnel in the area of research. Several possible avenues for the development of research interest and manpower for the population program are explored.     

Assessing the impact of a family planning nurse training program in Egypt

In 1991 the Egyptian Ministry of Health introduced a new training program for family planning nurses. The training program stressed the development of nurses' counseling skills. As part of the Operations Research Program, sponsored by Family Health International in collaboration with the Egypt National Family Planning Board, managerial staff from family planning agencies designed and implemented a study to evaluate the impact of the new training program. The study objective was to assess the impact of nurse training on nurse performance in the clinic and on clients' family planning knowledge, attitudes and contraceptive use. The study was designed to provide usable information to family planning managers in the field within a time period of less than one year. The study results indicate that there is an association between improved family planning training for nurses and positive changes in family planning knowledge, attitudes and behavior among women attending MoH clinics in this study. The greatest relative change occurred in knowledge. Women in the experimental group, relative to the control group, displayed increased knowledge about contraceptives, particularly the pill and the IUD. Attitudinal change was less pronounced. Favorable attitudes toward oral contraceptives and condoms became more prevalent, and reports of husband-wife communication about family planning also increased. Finally, although contraceptive use was already high prior to the nurse training, IUD use increased significantly among women in one governorate.     

Further research in theories of population being carried out]

The 2nd Chinese Scientific Symposium on Theories of Population was held in Chengdu, Sichuan, on December 7-13, 1979. The symposium was jointly sponsored by the Department of Family Planning of the Chinese Central Government, Chinese Academy of Sociology, Sichuan Provincial Revolutionary Committee (SPRC), and the Institute of Population Theories of the Chinese People's University (IPT). There were 255 attendants, representing 60 academic institutions, 14 scientific research organizations and 31 provincial, municipal, and autonomous regional departments of family planning. The main theme of the meeting was "Population Problems and Their Solutions Facing the Four Modernizations in China." 147 papers were read at the meeting. The meeting opened with a welcoming speech by Comrade Liu Haiquan, Vice-Chairman of SPRC, who pointed out the challenge Chinese family planners would face in advocating the 1 child family policy. Long speeches were made by Comrade Chen Dao who stressed the training of workers for Chinese population research and by Comrade Du Xinyuan (secretary of SPRC) who summarized results on recent family planning efforts in Sichuan. During the meeting, based on their contents, the papers were divided into 7 groups for separate discussions: 1) population development in the socialistic society, 2) relationship between population and economic developments and between population control and the 4 modernizations in China, 3) possible population problems in China, their nature, etiology and methods of solution, 4) population policies and family planning in China, 5) trends in population development and population planning in China, 6) problems of population distribution in China, and 7) development of population theories in China during the past 30 years. The meeting discussions were summarized by Comrade Liu Zheng of IPT who noted that there were 84 more attendants and 110 more papers in this meeting than the first held in 1978.     

The participation of non-governmental organizations in the Philippine population program

In 1957 the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) established the Family Welfare Center, offering an educational program in family planning; it was subsequently expanded and reorganized into the Planned Parenthood Movement of the Philippines. Since its creation in 1970 the Philippine Population Program has brought together government, private, and religious activities. Under the 1987-92 development plan nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) will be taking a more active role in the implementation of the population program by contributing to the maternal and child health/family planning and the information, education, and communication (IEC) components. There are more than 50 private organizations engaged in such population activities. These include national women's organizations and development NGOs with a mass base. The Family Planning Organization of the Philippines is carrying out a 3-year comparative study of the effectiveness of community volunteers in the acceptance of natural family planning. The Reproductive Health Philippines has completed a follow-up of Depo Provera defaulters in a previous clinical study of Depo Provera acceptors conducted in 1985-87. IEC support from various medical and social organizations also helped advance family planning and population awareness of the program. The Mary Johnston Hospital and Iglesia ni Kristo have been front-runners in sterilization through their mobile teams and regular clinics. On the negative side, funding constraints are threatening the very existence of some NGOs. Even those that do not face such constraints face problems related to cost effectiveness, priority setting, capability building, and staff development. A survey of the Population Center Foundation identified some urgent concerns: sharing experience in self-reliance, enhancement of the managerial skills of staff, and funding problems. NGOs complement the family planning services of the government as well as focus on the smooth flow of IEC activities.