Minister for Population Welfare in Punjab; Colonel (R) Hashim Dogar has stressed that the Population Welfare department under the Government of Punjab lays great emphasis on providing quality family planning services throughout the province.
While speaking at the launch ceremony of an innovative model for enhancing access to family planning services for marginalized women, the minister said that there is a need to bring in innovative thinking to tackle such wide scale problems and these projects help extend access to family planning services to the beneficiaries.
The minister further added that these projects are being jointly implemented by BISP, the Population Council and Punjab Population Innovation Fund (PPIF) in Rahim Yar Khan district and through the service delivery network for which all departments are working with a universal aim which is to provide reproductive health and family planning services to every household in Punjab province. He especially mentioned the support by the Chief Minister Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar Khan and the allocation of maximum financial resources to realize the dream of effective population planning in the province of the Punjab.
The launch ceremony was attended by members of national and provincial assemblies, members from population welfare and health departments, federal and provincial ministries, public officials, UN agencies, health practitioners, donors, academia, civil society and the media.
Speaking at the occasion, Dr. Ijaz Nabi, Chairman PPIF said that the Government of Punjab has established PPIF as a technical hub for innovative, scalable and sustainable family planning interventions such as this initiative in district Rahim Yar Khan. PPIF with independent board of directors and a flexible programmatic and organizational structure specializes in designing and piloting interventions that can supplement public sector programming for improving family planning information and services.
Mr. Jawad Ahmed Qureshi, CEO, Punjab Population Innovation Fund (PPIF) said the pilot model will facilitate low-income married women of reproductive age in district Rahim Yar Khan through a voucher scheme to avail free family planning services. Transportation cost will also be reimbursed to these women, thereby eliminating the financial barriers for poor women in uptake of family planning services. He hoped that the successful implementation of this pilot would pave the way for scaling up this model throughout Punjab.