Program Background

Bihar Rural Livelihood Promotion Society and the State Health Society Bihar signed a Memorandum of Association on February 19, 2022. The departments agreed to collectively work on family planning and reach a more extensive community base through the SHG platform, leading to the inception of the “Family Planning Convergence Program” in Bihar. The program is to be rolled out in 2 blocks each of intervention districts – Aurangabad, Jehanabad, Lakhisarai, Sheikhpura and Sheohar with the involvement of existing women cadre of JEEViKA, namely Community Mobilizers (CM), Community Nutrition and Resource Persons (CNRP). The program would actively collaborate and create linkages with Health Community Workers, i.e., ASHA and ASHA Facilitators and healthcare service providers like ANMs, to abridge demand and supply for family planning products and services.

Goal

Increase the uptake of family planning methods amongst the women in SHGs and community through the collaboration of JEEViKA and Family Planning Program of Department of Health, Bihar.

Objectives

1. Create a pool of community level motivators for dissemination of family planning information and messages.
2. Increased awareness level about family planning and reproductive health among SHG households and the general population.
3. Create a convergence platform at different levels between health and Jeevika to build the capacity of Jeevika cadre on family planning.

Expected Outcomes

1. Increased access and use of family planning methods amongst the community.
2. Reduce unmet need of family planning services.

Geography

The program would be implemented in 2 blocks of five intervention district of Bihar.

Intervention Districts & Block details under FP convergence program

 

S.No.	District	Blocks
1	Aurangabad	Barun and Obara
2	Jehanabad	Kako and Sadar
3	Lakhisarai	Halsi and Suragadha
4	Sheikhpura	Barbigha and Sheikhpura sarai
5	Sheohar	Piprahi and Sheohar

Program Evolution

1. State level team and five district coordinators selected and positioned in the five interventions districts of Aurangabad, Jehanabad, Lakhisarai, Sheohar and Sheikhpura. The Induction Meeting of District Coordinators – FP organized on May 6, 2022, and subsequently meetings held on monthly basis at state and district levels.
2. At the state, district and block levels, meeting held by Health and JEEViKA functionaries for program planning and designing, to build a camaraderie to work in synergy. The meetings facilitated in designing of SoPs, job aids & training materials and developing and designing program reporting formats.
3. The PIP of 2022-23 and 2023 – 24 have fund allocations of Rs 266.34 lakhs for the program and Rs 622.94 lakhs for scaling up the activities in the remaining blocks of the target districts. This was approved in the RoP of Bihar by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare under National Health Mission (NHM). JEEViKA leads community-based implementation in this program design. State Health Society Bihar has provisioned incentives for work every month for cadres to work as a motivator for family planning services.
4. The field visits were held for testing the tools developed for the program. Interactions were held with health care workers and community-based cadres of both the departments to learn from their experiences and build the ownership towards the program. The meetings held with SHG members to build in their perspective to program design, tools and aids for the program and recording of information for analysis and data management of the program.
5. As per the Theory of Change proposed in the program, the process, output and outcome indicators are developed. To set the benchmark of the program, the baseline survey was done in the intervention and control areas. Ten blocks were chosen from each intervention and control blocks, and from there 10 VOs each were selected at random. The orientation and training of the survey team was done on the tool developed for the base line.
6. On Oct 11 -12, 2022, the state-level Master Trainers Training was organized in partnership with JEEViKA and State Health Society (SBS) Bihar. Participants from five intervention districts attended the training. The training focused on giving a technical understanding of the program and orientation on the management tool. The job aids developed under the program, namely: Flipbook – Janki Didi ki Kahani, CM reference book, and CNRP guide, were introduced to the participants. Rolling out of the program with community-based collectives will benefit from leveraging their existing institutional structures under the SRLM, like the SHGs, Village Organizations and Cluster Level Federation (CLF). CMs and the CNRP system of JEEViKA will help reach the target communities and address the barriers related to family planning methods and messages.
7. In January 2023, the Standard Operating Procedure to commence roll out of implementation was approved by both partner departments.

Training & Capacity Building

• Master Training of Trainers was organized on February 15 -16, 2023 by State Health Society Bihar for creation of resource pool on family planning for the intervention districts. The participants were DCM (health), HN Manager and Nodal Person (JEEViKA) and District Coordinators (PCI). The training oriented them on program guidelines, program activities and deliverables, reporting and payment mechanism and technical input on contraception.
• Organized from February 20 -24, 2023, was a 5-day residential training to equip the Master Resource Persons to undertake quality training of field cadres. 29 MRPs from 5 intervention districts; 2 blocks each, were trained on the program activities, games and tools, reporting formats and interpersonal communication skills on promoting messages related family planning.
• MToT organized in all the 5 districts for BCM (Health) and MRP (JEEViKA) to enable them to take the training of field-based cadres. Taking all the 5 districts, altogether, 40 people were trained on program guidelines, technical information on contraception, program activities and recording and reporting mechanisms.
• Organized at the block level, in all the five districts the training of CNRPs and ASHA Facilitator in one batch and training of CMs in multiple batches was held. The field-based cadres were trained by MRPs on program activities, roles and responsibilities of different cadres, methods of contraception and the recording and reporting mechanisms with formats.

PCI played a facilitative role in designing and developing the programs and activities to strengthen the convergence between the two key departments from the commencement of the intervention. Along with the state-level program activities, the district team also did the district-level preparation. They coordinated with the district, block-level health, and JEEViKA officials, orienting them on the FP convergence program. At the state level, PCI has become an active consortium partner for family planning under the RMNCH+A component of SHSB, enabling the organization to share and put across program and policy-related issues emerging from field realities and situations.