Rapid Media Assessment on Family Planning

By AJAAT

Between July and September 2011 AJAAT conducted an assessment of Media House’s interest in supporting Family Planning services in Tanzania. The assessment, among other things, explored the possibility of the private sector to play its role in the provision of social services as outline in the Public Private Partnership Act, 2010 and the implementation of Corporate Social Responsibility policies.

The main objective of the assignment was to gather information from Media Houses on the status of coverage, capacity, interest/commitment and challenges on Family Planning issues by the media. Specifically, the assessment aimed at covering seven Media Houses; Mwananchi Communications (Mwananchi, The Citizen), The Guardian Limited (The Guardian, Nipashe), New Habari (2006) Ltd., (Mtanzania, The African), Tanzania Standard Newspapers (Daily News, Habari Leo), IPP Media (ITV and Radio One), TBC (TBC 1 and TBC Taifa) and Sahara Communications (Star TV and Radio Free Africa).  

One of the media Houses– IPP Media, was not reached, making the assessment covers six Media Houses only. The exercise targeted mainly senior media personnel: managers, managing editors, editors and news presenters from the selected Media Houses. 

The assessment was conducted using structured questionnaires of closed and open ended questions to solicit the desired information from respondents. 

The findings of the assessment show interesting facts about family planning issues in Media Houses. Respondents in the assessment were fairly distributed in the various Media Houses. Three Media Houses had high representations (21% each) while two Media Houses had middle representations (14% each) and one Media House had a low representation (7%).

Family Planning in Tanzania

Family planning saves the lives of women, newborns, and adolescents as well as contributes to the nation’s socioeconomic development. It prevents maternal mortality, one of the major concerns addressed by various global and national commitments and reflected in the targets of the Millennium Development Goals, Tanzania Vision 2025, the National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty, and the Primary Health Services Development Program.

Family planning reduces infant deaths from AIDS by preventing unintended pregnancies and hence mother-to-child transmission of HIV. It also helps governments achieve national and international development goals because it can contribute to the achievement of all of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals, including reducing poverty and hunger, promoting gender equity and empowering women, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, combating HIV/AIDS, and ensuring environmental sustainability.

The Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MOHSW) developed this National Family Planning Costed Implementation Program (NFPCIP) based on the goal of the One Plan to increase the contraceptive prevalence rate to a target of 60 percent by the year 2015. The NFPCIP is also guided by and links with the Health Sector Strategic Plan III (HSSPIII), the Human Resources for Health Strategy Plan (HRHSP), and the Primary Health Service Development Programme (PHSDP). Funds required to implement these NFPCIP activities will build on and augment the many investments called for in the HSSPIII, PHSDP, and HRHSP strategies by ensuring that essential resources for an effective family planning program are identified and that the activities are integrated and implemented within and throughout the overall health system.

The main objective of the NFPCIP is to reposition and reinvigorate access to and use of family planning services in Tanzania. The NFPCIP stipulates five strategic action areas for implementation that are needed to reposition family planning: contraceptive security, capacity building, service delivery, health systems management, and advocacy. Although all five components are needed for a thriving and effective program, emphasis will be given to two areas to prioritize fulfillment of the increasing demands for family planning services in the country. These two areas include ensuring contraceptive security and strengthening integrated service delivery of family planning in all aspects of the health sector, including HIV/AIDS, immunization services, postnatal care, and post abortion care.