With inadequate financial resources followed by the increasing poverty and high inflation, the government should do its best in ensuring the availability of family planning facilities even in the remote areas to control rapidly increasing population of Pakistan.
This was the crux of the conference titled 'Dissemination of Findings of Joint Contraceptive Quantification with National, Provincial and Regional Governments of Pakistan, NGOs and Commercial Sector' organised by USAID on Thursday. Muhammad Tariq, Country Director of Deliver Project, Rabbi Royan, Country Representative of UNFPA, Cary Spisak, Logistics Advisor of Deliver Project, Dr Huma Qureshi, Executive Director of Pakistan Medical Research Council (PMRC), and Dr Khurram Shehzad, Manager Logistics of Deliver Project were among the participants.
Cary Spisak said that USAID Deliver Project is leading the provision of technical assistance to the government directly in a number of different key technical areas including; supply chain management, central warehouse rehabilitation, logistics information systems, forecasting, procurement, contraceptive commodity security and co-ordination of Family Planning, Tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, Blood Transfusion, Immunization and Hepatitis.
The project is being carried out by USAID in collaboration with the Planning Commission of Pakistan, Provincial and Regional Departments of Health and Population, UNFPA and nongovernmental organisations (NGOs). Dr Farooq, a Health Official from Quetta told the audience there that almost 3 million condoms and 2 million contraceptives were still present in the Central warehouse to be distributed among the people in Balochistan. "Unfortunately, the provincial government does not have the funds available even after Budget 2011-12 to bear the transportation costs in picking the contraceptives and condoms from the warehouse and to bring it to Quetta to be distributed among the local population," Dr Farooq added.
A senior Health Official from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa said that the provincial government was preparing the population policy while in order to implement the methods of family planning properly, Rs 100 million have already being allocated for the purchase of contraceptives. Also the Federal government has agreed to provide the contraceptives to all of the 140 districts of Pakistan for the next three months.
The other participants highlighted that the Project's interventions in Pakistan are designed to improve the availability of supplies from the planning stage to last mile delivery. A web-based Logistics Management Information System (LMIS) is linked to procurement of the contraceptives planning and forecasting, and automation of procurement activities.
Contraceptive supplies to districts will be made on quarterly basis, Central Warehouse will supply three months of contraceptive stocks as per developed district distribution and transportation plan. Contraceptive stocks at the central warehouse will be treated as national stocks with elimination of intermediary inventory management at provincial level.
According to an estimate of the USAID, total funding requirement for Lady Health Workers (LHW) in 2012 is $15.7 million, in 2013 $10.5 million and $40.1 million in 2014. The overall funding requirement under the Deliver Project including LHW and Green Star is estimated at $30.4 million in 2012, $21.5million in 2013 and $28.7 million for 2014. USAID has already supported the commodities regarding the contraceptive needs by disbursing $32 million under the Deliver Project for the year 2010 and 2011.
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