Overview

Health and wellbeing of mothers continues to be one of the major challenges in Pakistan. CCP, with financial support from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, designed and implemented an advocacy and communication program to improve the health of women and families. The project created an environment in Pakistan that encouraged discussions in the media highlighting women’s health, and advocated for family planning as a way to improve the health and wellbeing of families. The project included building a strategic partnership with key media professionals and journalists, delivering advocacy activities with White Ribbon Alliance - Pakistan (WRAP), and producing and airing a fourteen-episode television drama series on issues related to family planning, to create a favorable media and policy environment, and improve understanding of benefits of family planning among targeted groups throughout Pakistan.

Accomplishments

Through advocacy activities with the most influential national and regional leaders in the country over two years, and an entertainment-education focused TV drama series Angoori, the project successfully positioned family planning as a life-saving intervention for mother and newborns.

• Capacity building and mobilization of the media and government sectors for policy change more than 200 of the most influential policy makers and new journalists were reached with information positioning family planning as a life-saving intervention through two policy papers and two policy briefs on Maternal Mortality and Family Planning
• These included 65 senior editors, journalists and media professionals and 125 senior government officials
• Advocacy for improving women’s health: over 200 policy makers, journalists and media professionals were reached through three national and regional roundtables
• A 10-minute documentary on the issue of maternal and newborn mortality proposed family planning as a life-saving solution in a compelling and dramatic way
• Fourteen hours of entertainment-education addressing family planning, women’s health, and the value of women and girls were aired on ATV and TV One, two leading channels in Pakistan, under the TV drama series Angoori.