Guidelines on strengthening family planning work at the community level

(en.nhfpc.gov.cn)

Updated: 2014-08-01

iii) Technological services We need to promote services of family planning, eugenic childbearing and reproductive health in order to inform people of contraceptive methods and instruct them to make appropriate choices that are safe and effective. It’s strictly prohibited for people to abort a fetus four months or more into pregnancy without medical needs. Free pre-pregnancy examinations are set to cover more people to prevent birth defects and improve the quality of newborns. National family planning programs providing free technological services should be implemented following strict procedures while guaranteeing service quality.

iv) Interest-oriented mechanism Legal incentives should be carried out nationwide, together with support systems rewarding a proportion of rural families that strictly follow the country’s one-child policy and special projects that assist families that have contributed to family planning work in western areas. Financial support, elderly security and social care should be well carried out to assist families with particular difficulties. Help from society is more than welcome and should be largely encouraged. We need to carry out activities nationwide to advocate happy families, new family plans and “Fertility Care” initiatives.

v) Information management A system of regular information collection should be set up with the support of the village (neighborhood) family planning network and workers, with a government mechanism to share information on antenatal care, hospitalized childbirth, immunization programs, house registration management, migration, marriage registration, compulsory education and social security, in part to better calculate and monitor the newborn population. We need to fully tap into the population information database rightfully and simplify grassroots standing book and statistical reports.

v) Community self-governance We need to promote democracy, roll out regulations and establish the convention of family planning self-governance while clarifying family planning responsibilities of village (neighborhood) committees, the tasks of family planning associations, and the power and obligation of the masses. Both incentives and restrictions should be adopted to lead the masses in self-management, self-services, self-education and self-supervision. We need to promote “credible family planning” work based on the principle of “two-way commitment and mutual integrity” between the masses and local governments or village (neighborhood) committees.

Strengthening family planning leadership

i) Clarify leadership responsibilities

The Party or government head should continue to take charge of overall family planning work, while adhering to the target management responsibility system and exercising the “one-vote veto” system. The leading group should step up efforts to deal with urgent problems that stymie grassroots family planning progress, ensuring that all are in place including accountability, measures, investment and implementation.

ii) Strengthen overall management We need to clarify job duties of each department involved in family planning and gear up for overall mapping to bolster work coordination on a shared information platform, enabling seamless connection between family planning and government policies and measures in economy, society and services. This will help create a favorable policy environment and a coordinated mechanism for grassroots family planning work. All management policies and measures must not contradict any laws or regulations.

iii) Increase investment The Opinions on Improving the System of Ensuring Family Planning Investment jointly issued by the Finance Ministry and the National Commission of Population and Family Planning in 2011 should be implemented to complete the system of ensuring a steady increase of financial support for family planning that is set to outpace the growth rate of the country’s regular fiscal revenues. We need to make sure that each and every incentive or supporting or favorable policy stipulated by laws and regulations is carried out, and free basic technological services together with grassroots institutions, team building and regular work are put in place. It’s strictly prohibited to link family planning investment with the collection of social maintenance fees.