A woman’s ability to voluntarily decidehow many children they want and when they want to have them, if at all,directly impacts her health and well-being. Hence, access to reproductive health care including family planning, is a human right. But the delivery of this care must also respect human rights standards, including the principle of non-discrimination in order to save lives and accelerates sustainable human and economic development.
Being the pioneers of Social Marketing (SM)and Social Franchising (SF) of reproductive health services in Pakistan, Greenstar Social Marketing Pakistan is continuously striving for the last 28 years to contribute to its mission i.e. to the development of Pakistan through delivering voluntary and informed family planning services forall women, men, adolescent and their families, across Pakistan in all of the four provinces.As an independent member of the Population Services International (PSI) network , Greenstar is responsible to increase awareness and has been providing access to affordable quality modern contraceptivesconsistently over the years that has led to12 % to 15% yearly contribution to the national Couple Years of Protection (CYPs) through provision of approximately 38% of all contraceptives distributed by the private sector while making itself as the largest private sector provider of reproductive health products in Pakistan .
Greenstar has developed a network of 6,000 plus private providers, over 100,000 pharmacies and retailers, 400 plus Inter Personal Communication (IPC) field force to reach almost all parts of the country creating demand and responding by providing affordable, quality FP and RH services for the people of Pakistan. Greenstar has a history and existing capacity of testing maternal health and family planning innovation especially using business in a box model and health financing through vouchers.
Greenstar have been instrumental to promote family planning rights in Pakistan through the application of their two-pronged approach (SM and SF) while safeguardingthe standards to uphold the human right of family planning recognized by UNFPA and World Health Organization (WHO) to:
. Ensure availability of non-discriminatory informed family planning services for all;
. Increase reach (access) – more;
. Conform affordability through subsidized prices and;
. Provide high quality services through trainings, counselling & follow-ups
Some of the recent third-party evaluations funded by UKaid and David and Lucile Packard Foundation have reported cost-effective and diverse range of family planning services delivery by Greenstar implemented programs. These evaluations also suggested high quality standards by Greenstar service providers in provision of family planning information, voluntary services for all, and commodities.
1- TK Sundari Ravindran (Professor) (2010) Privatisation in reproductive health services in Pakistan: three case studies, Reproductive Health Matters, 18:36, 13-24, DOI: 10.1016/S0968-8080(10)36536-0
2- https://www.psi.org/country/pakistan/#about
3- Government of Pakistan, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Statistics Division, Ministry of Statistics (July 2018) Link:
http://www.pbs.gov.pk/sites/default/files//social_statistics/contraceptive_performance_reports/Contraceptive_Performance_Report_2016-17_summary_and_content%20s.pdf
4- Agha S, Carton T (2011) Determinants of institutional delivery in rural Jhang, Pakistan. Int J Equity Health 10: 31
5- Agha S (2011) Impact of a maternal health voucher scheme on institutional delivery among low income women in Pakistan. Reproductive Health 8: 10.
6- Population Situation Analysis of Pakistan. UNFPA Pakistan (2016). Available at: http://ec2-54-210-230-186.compute-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/PSA-Printed-Report-1.pdf
7- https://www.greenstar.org.pk/assets/newsletters/Raabta_vol_7.pdf
8- Fifty years ago, it became official: Family planning is a human right (2018). Link:
https://www.unfpa.org/news/fifty-years-ago-it-became-official-family-planning-human-right
9- Gheorghe A, Zaman RU, Scott M and Witter S. Delivering reproductive health services through non-state providers in Pakistan: understanding the value for money of different approaches. Glob Health Res Policy. 2018 Dec 4; 3:33. Doi: 10.1186/s41256-018-0089-4. E-Collection 2018.
10- Azmat SK, Ali M, Waqas Hameed and Ali Awan. Assessing Family Planning Service Quality and User Experiences in Social Franchising Programme - Case Studies from Two Rural Districts in Pakistan. Journal of Ayub Medical College, Abbottabad. 2018 Apr-Jun; 30 (2):187-197
