Evidence of targeted public and private sector officials, FBOs, or community leaders publicly demonstrating new or increased commitment to FP

Definition:

Evidence of targeted public and private sector officials, FBOs, or community leaders publicly demonstrating new or increased commitment to family planning (FP). Instances in which a leader in government, an organization, or the community, publicly demonstrates their new or additional support for FP. For example, providing financial or material support for an activity for the first time; delegating staff to work on an issue; or taking concrete action.

For donor or project reporting, this indicator requires that there be a clear link between the leader and repositioning efforts by a donor, project, program or initiative. This is not required for the assessment of a country’s overall efforts to reposition FP.

New commitment may be a one-time occurrence but should be reflective of ongoing or continuing support. Increased commitment is an observable change in the frequency, consistency, and/or depth of attention to an issue.

Data Requirement(s):

To track this indicator, the project needs to establish in advance which officials it is trying to reach with activities. Evidence is needed to verify the nature of the new or increased commitment.

Data Source(s):

Newspapers, workshop agendas, published statements, speeches, media reports, political party platforms, clipping service; key informant interviews.

For donors or projects wishing to assess their efforts to increase commitment to FP, a list of targeted officials/champions is required. Additionally, the donor or project would collect baseline information to assess the initial level of commitment or support of targeted leaders. A follow-up assessment will provide evidence of increased support. In addition to monitoring speeches and other signs of increased commitment, it may be necessary to administer a short questionnaire to both targeted leaders and key informants to document this indicator.

Purpose:

This indicator tracks increases in public commitment to FP, and can be used by programs working to influence public opinion and support through community leaders. Leaders control resources and affect public opinion. This indicator can also reflect the level of social acceptability of FP within a community/country. Demand for FP is a key factor in repositioning FP, but activities to increase demand are often outside the scope of repositioning efforts. This indicator measures one aspect of demand (social acceptability) that typically falls within the scope of most repositioning efforts.

Issue(s):

Although defined above, commitment is a somewhat subjective term. Simple statements of support by a leader without further evidence of commitment to FP may be better tracked by a modified version of a policy indicator in this database, Political and popular support for reproductive health.

Keywords:
family planning

References:

Health Policy Initiative Project Management Plan (2007). Unpublished project document.