WPF Pakistan

WPF acknowledges the benefits of investing in young people’s development and health, including their Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) for achievement of its global aim of improving quality of life in developing countries. WPF recognizes that programmes for young people (aged 10-24 years) are crucial to address the prevailing vulnerabilities including limited knowledge about their Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights and almost negligible access to SRHR services; although carrying the growing burden of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) including HIV and AIDS, sexual abuse and other life threatening challenges. Our strategies are designed to address the following main areas:

• Increased awareness on SRHR of all people especially young people (with special emphasis on women) in marginalized situations.
• Empowered youth groups to establish healthy sexual behaviors and make informed and responsible choices.
• An enabling environment for diverse youth groups to easily exercise choices and rights regarding their Sexual and Reproductive Health.
• Developing and strengthening youth-friendly/life-skills friendly systems (health and education etc.) throughout the country to have a national impact.

Evolution of WPF

In Pakistan, interventions on Family Planning started back as early as 1960s. Initially all the programmes took into consideration only the reproductive health aspects. In 1998-9, WPF established its field office in Pakistan (Islamabad) with the agenda of directing the Family Planning perspective to a broader perspective of SRHR that was critical for achieving the health, population and development targets more effectively in Pakistan.

During the first five years of its work in Pakistan, WPF supported government institutes as well as civil society organizations in designing and management of Sexual and Reproductive Health projects and provided technical assistance and trainings for the effective implementation of the programmes. WPF also formed a network of local NGOs known as “Adolescent Health Awareness Network (AHAN)” to strengthen local linkages in terms of sharing resources and experiences to improve reproductive health services and information for adolescents in Pakistan.

In 2003, WPF along with sister organization of AHAN conducted an “Assessment study on knowledge, attitudes and practice of Reproductive Health Indicators”. The study showed a number of alarming statistics regarding unsafe sexual practices, sexual exploitation, early marriages, unsafe abortions and maternal death etc. regarding the adolescents of Pakistan. With this study as an evident base, WPF focused its aim on enhancing the attitudes, skills and behaviours of adolescents in Pakistan for a greater impact. For the few years WPF’s major focus has been on adolescence SRHR with specific focus on “school-going youth”.

WPF – Strategic Framework

The WPF Country Strategy for Pakistan combines an understanding of our past with a vision for our future.

Vision - WPF, Pakistan as a regional resource for promoting Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights of young people for sustainable human development

Mission - To work to improve the quality of life of young people in Pakistan by promoting:

• Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR)
• Awareness of the importance of SRHR for sustainable human development
• Understanding of the central role of reproductive health in “population and development” issues

Goals

Goals have been identified keeping in view the critical areas in effectively addressing youth; the improvement in which would serve WPF, Pakistan’s mission:

Goal 1: All young people (especially girls) are empowered to develop and sustain the knowledge, attitudes, capacities, skills and behaviours needed to make healthy choices about sexuality and reproduction.
Goal 2: An enabling environment for upholding the sexual and reproductive health and rights of young people
Goal 3: Improved access and quality of youth-friendly SRHR services including STIs, HIV and AIDS (with special focus on girls) throughout the country

Intervention Strategies

The contemporary issues under these priority areas are addressed through the following broad programmatic strategies:

Research – to address the major misconceptions and wider information gaps related to sexual and reproductive health and rights of youth in Pakistan and policy research for an enabling environment.
Institutional Strengthening – to act as a catalyst in strengthening and building capacities of partners in the field of sexual and reproductive health and rights of youth throughout Pakistan and setting up of Life Skills friendly communities, institutions and resource centre(s).
Advocacy – to promote evidence based structured debate and dialogue amongst a variety of stakeholders from across the country/region on issues related to sexual and reproductive health and rights of the youth of Pakistan.
Resource Mobilization – Continue to draw more donors and strategic partners into development coalitions around SRHR, in order to ensure greater political and financial commitment and reduce misconceptions and gaps related to the issue of SRHR in Pakistan
Organization Development - WPF, Pakistan believes in constant capacity enhancement, effective organizational structure, capable human resources, efficient policies, systems and processes and application of Information Technology for Development (Website, SRHR Portal, CD RoMs etc) to have wider outreach and impact.

WPF also realizes the importance of partnerships in SRHR sector as no organization can accomplish everything on its own. Therefore, all the strategies mentioned above are carried out in strong collaborations with government, public sector organizations, civil society organizations, media and community stakeholders etc.