USAID Partners With Faith- and Community-Based Organizations in Family Planning Programs

USAID has been a pioneer among donors working through nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), including faith- and community-based organizations, to help women and families in the developing world.

	Source: Johns Hopkins University

Why Work With Faith-Based Organizations?

When the values of public health and religion converge, all people, in particular the most vulnerable and hardest to reach, are more likely to gain access to much-needed family planning (FP) and reproductive health (RH) care. Faith communities provide critical health services — in some countries, faith groups operate anywhere from 25–50 percent of health facilities. Such geographic reach increases individuals’ access to information, care, and referrals. Compared with the public health system in many developing countries, faith groups also have greater:

• Trust and credibility among the local population
• Quality of care over that offered by public or government-supported services
• Management skills
• Holistic approaches to the needs of families and communities
• Sustainable potential
• Advocacy for the needs of poor and marginalized populations

USAID works with faith-based organizations (FBOs) to provide FP services in developing countries using a variety of approaches, including:

Providing funding and technical assistance to local FBO.

• Churches Medical Association of Zambia (CMAZ), a network of mission hospitals, serves nearly 40 percent of the population and integrates FP services, and HIV and malaria prevention into existing programs. CMAZ also distributes grants to small faith-based NGOs to help serve the poorest of the poor and to those living in remote, hard-to-reach areas.
  
  
• USAID supports the Christian Health Association of Kenya (CHAK), an umbrella organization that manages health facilities owned by 29 Protestant organizations that provide 30 percent of all the country’s health care. One of CHAK’s community-based programs has established nine community sites linked to nine clinics offering FP services.

Providing program funding to faith-based NGOs and other community-based organizations.

• The Adventist Development and Relief Agency provides FP programs as well as education on child spacing and the benefits of smaller families to more than 120 developing countries worldwide.
  
  
• The Institute for Reproductive Health at Georgetown University (a Catholic institution) provides natural FP services and develops new strategies and approaches to increase the RH awareness of individuals and communities in developing countries.

Involving religious leaders to ensure programs not only meet community standards but are also acceptable to community leaders and the people.

• In Jordan, a USAID-funded project is working to increase access to and use of contraceptives. To do this, television spots featuring Jordan’s pre-eminent religious leader, Samahatasheik Tamimi, were produced to educate people that FP is acceptable in Islam.
  
  
• Another USAID-funded communication program works with Islamic leaders in Jordan, Guinea, Senegal, and Indonesia to inform men and women that FP is allowed under Islamic law and to encourage men to take more responsibility for FP and family health. In Jordan, for example, Islamic religious leaders have become leading proponents of FP. They directly address questions about the Islamic perspective on modern methods, spousal communication, and equity among male and female children.
  
  
• With USAID support, the Indonesia National Family Planning Coordinating Board (BKKBN) educated the Ministry of Religious Affairs and independent Islamic organizations and community religious leaders about the importance of FP. This allowed BKKBN to include FP in women’s Koran reading groups and in the curricula of religious schools.
  
  
• In Bolivia, a USAID initiative to reduce deaths from illegal abortion involved the Catholic Church, government officials, and medical societies to generate national consensus for a broad program of RH.

Updated June 2006