Southern Sudan has the highest maternal mortality rate in the world at 2,037 deaths per 100,000 live births, and an extremely low contraceptive prevalence rate of less than 1%. As a post-conflict country the idea of family planning is still highly sensitive, but the Ministry of Health has made promotion of child spacing in the context of maternal health and child survival part of its agenda. In this context, USAID has asked LMS to help the MOH/Government of SouthernSudan (GoSS) move forward in developing a supportive policy environment for family planning and reproductive health.

RESULTS

Between April and December 2009, LMS worked with the MOH/GoSS to develop supportive policies relating to family planning and to strengthen the capacity of people at all levels to advocate for the importance of family planning in the context of maternal health, child survival, and family economics.

• In December 2009, LMS finalized the Family Planning Policy, which has been adopted by the MOH while awaiting formal approval by Parliament. MSH's Sudan Health Transformation Project II supported a National Consensus Workshop in November to review the draft Policy with the participation of roughly 50 people from the Ministry of Health, other branches of the government, UN agencies, international and local NGOs, and private clinics and pharmacies. Over the two-day review, participants discussed the situation in the country with regard to family planning and made detailed recommendations on the content of the policy document.
  
• In April 2009, the LMS project conducted a one-week study tour, bringing a group of eight family planning champions from Southern Sudan to Rwanda, where they saw first-hand the achievements of a program that faced similar post-conflict challenges, and learned from the successes, challenges and failures experienced by their Rwandan colleagues.
  

EXPERIENCE IN COUNTRY

Development of National Family Planning Policy

The main objective of the project is to assist the GoSS to develop supportive policies relating to family planning, and to strengthen the capacity of family planning champions within the GoSS who can advocate for the importance of family planning in the context of maternal health, child survival, and family economics. From April to November 2009, LMS placed a consultant with the Ministry of Health to support the MOH's Reproductive Health Unit in the development of policies and strategies relating to family planning. In addition to primarily working on the development of a national family planning policy, the consultant also provided technical input in areas such as maternal and child health policy development, and worked to engage NGO, CSO and private sector actors in promoting the importance of family planning issues.