Family Planning Campaign Activities To Continue in Nepal

While the Health Communication Capacity Collaborative’s work in Nepal is ending, the award-winning national Smart Jeewan (Smart Life) campaign will carry on under the leadership of National Health Education Information and Communication Center (NHEICC) with the support of partners.

HC3’s team in Nepal participated in a dissemination meeting on June 22, 2017, led by NHEICC in coordination with Family Health Division (FHD) to share the results, lessons learned, sustainability approaches, and materials of HC3’s Nepal work to further strengthen family planning communication practices in the country.

The HC3 team, as part of Nepal’s wider community of social and behavior change communication (SBCC) partner practitioners, has been committed to supporting the family planning communication strategy and policy guidelines of the Government of Nepal.

Kunj Joshi, Senior Health Education Administrator, National Health Education Information Communication Center, Ministry of Health, Nepal

The purpose of this meeting was to contribute to the further planning and coordination of family planning communication activities in the coming years by:

• Identifying effective program approaches, models and materials as produced through the HC3 Nepal and the award-winning national Smart Jeewan (Smart Life) campaign.
• Exploring how Nepal’s community of SBCC practitioners are further extending family planning communication best practices.
• Further paving the way for the Government of Nepal family planning communication addressing the needs of youth, migrants and marginalized and disadvantaged groups.

In addition to NHEICC and FHD, those attending the meeting included USAID, other USAID projects, UN agencies, international NGOs and the private sector, as well as HC3’s central and district staff – a 110 participants in total.

Mr. Dilli Raman Adhikari, Senior Public Health Administrator, Family Health Division, Department of Health Services and Mr. Daniel Verschneider, Deputy Director Office of Health, USAID-Nepal, presenting plaque in appreciation for MOH and USAID Cooperation on the Smart Jeewan Campaign and the MOH and USAID, HC3 partnership

HC3 team leaders presented the program approaches, models and materials developed under the national Smart Jeewan campaign. Following the presentation and after a brief question-and-answer session, a variety of SBCC partners, taking HC3 models and approaches into consideration, shared their plans for sustaining family planning communication best practices in their work.

According to Kunj Joshi, a senior health education administrator at the NHEICC in the Ministry of Health, despite limited resources the NHEICC “will continue the Smart Jeewan campaign activities with the support of our partners.” He continued, “We have wide coverage through the health system across the country and with the changing political system, there will be even more local government implementation and we will support that.”

Dilli Raman Adhikari, a senior public health administrator added, “We will look at the positive results from HC3’s Smart Jeewan campaign and take it forward with partners’ support.”

For additional information on the Smart Jeewan campaign, visit the Spotlight in the Health COMpass: Smart Couple – Nepal.