Population and development : requirements for rural communication strategy

Abstract

This paper investigates the potential for increasing the effectiveness of rural family planning programs by strengthening their functional links with other areas of development: agriculture and rural development, health and nutrition, home economics and family life, and education. The author reviews a number of successful, integrated projects that have used innovative approaches to present population problems and solutions to them. He uses the models presented by these projects to suggest strategies for field activities such as working with village-level groups and with adult education programs. The paper concludes with a review of the requirements for an effective rural family planning program such as adequate information and materials for fieldworkers, training and backstopping for fieldworkers, involvement of rural workers in program planning and research projects, free flow of communication among all levels of the family planning program and with other development programs, and good relationships with members and groups within the rural community.