Improving Quality of Reproductive Health Care through Implementing a Client-Centered Approach in Pakistan

Zeba A. Sathar, Population Council
Anrudh Jain, Population Council
Saumya Ramarao, Population Council
Minhaj ul Haque, Population Council

The ICPD agenda argued forcefully that a focus on family planning without adequately addressing other reproductive health issues is short sighted (Sai, 1997). It recognized that social and economic constraints to women's access to services are paramount for improvements in reproductive health. The paradigm shift also asked for a focus on clients, men, and women and away from government or provider driven targets and objectives. There is very little practical experience to guide this policy change. In Pakistan the main policy questions are: first, to what extent is it possible to train workers to provide a wide range of reproductive health services as well as address the constraints to women's access of services; second, whether the provision of a combination of services and a focus on clients rather than on the achievements of targets lead to better quality reproductive health services. Our research measures these issues.