Use of the "FAMPLAN" Model for Advocacy with High-Level Decision-Makers on Formulation of Family Planning Strategy of Jharkhand, India

A. A. Jayachandran, Futures Group
Sethi Himani, Futures Group
Sharma Suneeta, Futures Group

Jharkhand has a high population growth with decadal growth of 22.34% during 2001-11 (Provisional Census 2011), 3.1 TFR (Annual Health Survey, 2010-11) and with high unmet need (30.5%, AHS, 2010-11). The State had formulated its Health & Population Policy in 2004 to achieve fertility rate of 2.1 children by 2020 and contraceptive prevalence rate of 60% by 2015, but is nowhere close. USAID|Health Policy Initiative and the IFPS Technical Assistance Project (ITAP) provided technical support to the state to reformulate its policy. FamPlan is a component of the SPECTRUM suite of health policy models. It uses assumptions about proximate determinants of fertility and characteristics of the FP programmes like method mix, source mix, etc. FamPlan was used and the results with four alternative scenarios were simulated which helped the state to modify its FP strategy. Projection and modeling tools can be powerful advocacy tools for timely and appropriate policy actions.