MESSAGE FROM LEADERSHIP
Ayesha Leghari
Country Director
The world is not the same as before. Change was constant; however, challenges had never been this harsh. COVID-19 caused tremendous upheaval to health systems around the world, disrupting access to family planning information and services, and particularly sexual and reproductive health. Despite the disturbance, family planning continues to remain critical, basic health care for women.
To ensure that family planning remains an essential element of Pakistan’s health agenda, PSI Pakistan has been working with country and global partners to strengthen and protect the SRH rights of married women of reproductive age. At PSI Pakistan, the efforts are not just related to delivering products to the vulnerable communities but also to help erase the stigma attached to birth spacing which has been a barrier to women’s pursual of modern contraceptive methods. While priortising informed choice, we believe in spreading the correct information to families, and more specifically men who are the biggest motivators in woman’s decision making when opting for modern contraceptive method.
Lastly, empowering women and girls to make decision and informed choice can bring about transformational improvements in the health and prosperity of families, communities, and societies.
KARL HOFMANN
PRESIDENT & CEO
PSI is committed to helping women and families plan the families they desire. Our foundational work more than 50 years ago was centered on reproductive healthcare, and this remains the emotional core of PSI’s wider health portfolio today. Meeting unmet needs for modern contraception is as important today as ever – and continues to be unfinished work in many environments, including in Pakistan.
Health consumers, governments, and donor agencies all expect new and innovative approaches to this work today. Meeting unmet need involves more intensive listening to the consumer and user, to appreciate her barriers and help to overcome them. It involves more digital innovation than ever before, leveraging the power of connectivity to strengthen mixed, national healthcare systems and a dispersed workforce to meet consumers’ needs. And, it involves new thinking on cost recovery, sustainability, focusing available subsidy on the poorest of the poor without missing the needs of those who have been disregarded in the past by the market.
Stronger mixed healthcare systems, drawing from the power and scale of both public and private sectors to ensure quality healthcare is provided at scale and without undue financial hardship to health consumers, are effective not just at meeting unmet need for modern contraception. They are of course also the building blocks for effective response to health emergencies such as the Covid-19 pandemic. Well-functioning health systems are the pathway to Universal Health Coverage and a strong contributor to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals overall. We are privileged to work on these challenges in Pakistan, under the guidance of national authorities and with the support of our key funding partners.
PSI’s work and proud partnerships in Pakistan help to advance our practice globally, ensuring that Pakistan’s lessons can be applied across PSI’s global operational footprint.
MARCIE COOK
VICE PRESIDENT, SOCIAL ENTERPRISE
The world is not the same as before. Change was constant; however, challenges had never been this harsh. COVID-19 caused tremendous upheaval to health systems around the world, disrupting access to family planning information and services, and particularly sexual and reproductive health. Despite the disturbance, family planning continues to remain critical, basic health care for women.
To ensure that family planning remains an essential element of Pakistan’s health agenda, PSI Pakistan has been working with country and global partners to strengthen and protect the SRH rights of married women of reproductive age. At PSI Pakistan, the efforts are not just related to delivering products to the vulnerable communities but also to help erase the stigma attached to birth spacing which has been a barrier to women’s pursual of modern contraceptive methods. While priortising informed choice, we believe in spreading the correct information to families, and more specifically men who are the biggest motivators in woman’s decision making when opting for modern contraceptive method.
Lastly, empowering women and girls to make decision and informed choice can bring about transformational improvements in the health and prosperity of families, communities, and societies.
ERIC SEASTEDT
REGIONAL REPRESENTATIVE, ASIA
The world is not the same as before. Change was constant; however, challenges had never been this harsh. COVID-19 caused tremendous upheaval to health systems around the world, disrupting access to family planning information and services, and particularly sexual and reproductive health. Despite the disturbance, family planning continues to remain critical, basic health care for women.
To ensure that family planning remains an essential element of Pakistan’s health agenda, PSI Pakistan has been working with country and global partners to strengthen and protect the SRH rights of married women of reproductive age. At PSI Pakistan, the efforts are not just related to delivering products to the vulnerable communities but also to help erase the stigma attached to birth spacing which has been a barrier to women’s pursual of modern contraceptive methods. While priortising informed choice, we believe in spreading the correct information to families, and more specifically men who are the biggest motivators in woman’s decision making when opting for modern contraceptive method.
Lastly, empowering women and girls to make decision and informed choice can bring about transformational improvements in the health and prosperity of families, communities, and societies.