Strengthening Egypt’s Family Planning Program (SEFPP)

Project Context

Egypt’s population growth is one of the country’s greatest challenges. With one million Egyptians born every six months. In direct response to the Government of Egypt’s expressed desire to strengthen family planning and reproductive health services, USAID returned to this sector after a ten-year absence with a voluntary family planning program. Strengthening Egypt’s Family Planning Program (SEFPP), a five-year, USAID-funded activity, works with the Government of Egypt (GOE) to strengthen its family planning system and integrate family planning into the GOE’s maternal health and other health programs.

SEFPP is implemented by John Snow, Inc. in partnership with the Population Council, the Center for Development Services, and the Busara Center for Behavioral Economics. The partnership team works together and with the GOE for results that contribute to reducing Egypt’s fertility over time, helping achieve contraceptive security, and facilitating the institutionalization of a sustainable and well-managed FP/RH program with quality services provision.

Project Objectives

Strengthening Egypt’s Family Planning Program (SEFPP), a five-year, USAID-funded activity, works with the Government of Egypt (GOE) to strengthen its family planning system and integrate family planning into the GOE’s maternal health and other health programs. SEFPP builds upon the significant achievements the GOE, donors, and the private sector have had in the family planning sector, in addition to JSI’s previous successful work in Egypt. The project aims to create sustainable solutions that will help address Egypt’s growing population by increasing the use of family planning methods and promoting healthy timing and spacing of pregnancies leading to a positive change in contraceptive use over time. Project implementation is focused on the nine governorates of Upper Egypt and the slums of Cairo and Alexandria. The project's activities are expected to work to address some of the major drivers behind Egypt’s fertility reversal documented in the 2014 EDHS: namely

• Decreased exposure to family planning (FP) / reproductive health (RH) messages in the media
• Decreased FP/RH information and counseling
• Limited contraceptive method mix and shift in method choice by women from IUDs to oral contraceptives
• Discontinuation of methods due to mismanagement of side effects
• Increased trends toward earlier marriage
• Increased trends to having the first child sooner and having shorter birth intervals; and
• Fewer young women using contraception.

Project Delivery Approach

• Evidence-based Planning: the project adopts an evidence-based planning, decision and policy making by helping the government to gather and use data to improve health system performance
• Change Advocacy: behavioral and needs-based project's interventions selection, design and implementation including evidence-based community awareness programs.
• Demand Creation: creation of demand for family planning and reproductive health services
• Corporate Social Responsibility: Support shared-value longer-term partnership with Corporate Social Responsibility programs including promoting women employment

Project Activities

Activities will help increase demand for family planning services and enhance the quality of services, aiming to improve contraceptive use and reduce fertility over time. Project activities include

Support Services Quality of Family Planning and Reproductive Health

• The provision of high quality counseling services through training practitioners in counselling, contraceptive technologies, ensuring voluntary family planning.
• Formulation of policies that encourage partnerships between the government and the private sector to improve public health supply chain management and ensure that contraceptives are available based on beneficiaries' usage history and methods type.
• Implement a distance learning model for health care specialists to enhance the delivery of quality services

Social and Health Behavioral Change 

• Implement several activities related to Social and Behavior Change Communication including the conduct of behavioral research, behavioral science and how to evaluate behavioral interventions and programs within an experimental framework.
• Develop strategies and interventions that promote family planning at the national, governorate, and community levels. Activities will forge strong partnerships with local community programs to foster the practice of positive behavior among individuals and communities by improving their knowledge, attitudes, skills, and norms to encourage the adoption of health behaviors to improve family planning and reproductive health outcomes in Egypt
• Develop, implement and monitor mass media campaigns using both traditional and electronic media.
• Produce quality media productions that are appealing to the target audience in terms of substance, form, extension and sensitivity.
• Establish an electronic program to register the beneficiaries of the program
• Design a family planning and reproductive health curriculum in the medical and nursing schools
• Capacity building of academic institutions, GOE partners, and stakeholders