JORDAN Mabrouk Initiative An Innovative Approach to Reach Every Newlywed Couple for Family Planning through Ministry of Interior Rula Dajani Deputy Chief of Party Jordan Health Communication Partnership (JHCP) Bangkok - Tuesday March 9, 2010

A national program funded by USAID with technical assistance from Johns Hopkins University/Bloomberg School of Public Health, Center for Communication Programs A national program funded by USAID with technical assistance from Johns Hopkins University/Bloomberg School of Public Health, Center for Communication Programs To achieve a health competent Jordan In which communication empowers individuals, families, communities and institutions with the knowledge, skills and resources needed to work together to improve and sustain health. To achieve a health competent Jordan In which communication empowers individuals, families, communities and institutions with the knowledge, skills and resources needed to work together to improve and sustain health. Partners

Fostering a health competent society through:  Creating supporting environments  Contributing to health service performance  Mobilizing communities  Audience segmentation according to life stages  Involving individuals Households are the producers of health Conceptual Framework

 Objective: Raise the awareness of the newly wed couples in FP/RH  Partners: MOH, MOA&IA & HPC  Channels: Ma’azoons, Shari’s judges and priests when signing the marriage contract Mabrouk “ Congratulations” – Phase One

Lack of effective monitoring and evaluation systems Handling procedures were not institutionalized. Therefore, MOI represented the best systematic institution to adopt initiatives. MOI/ CSPD tracks Jordanian citizens (target audience segmented) throughout their different life stages (birth, passports, marriage, children and death certificates) Phase 1- Lessons Learned Shift to MOI

Goal : reaching newly wed couples and new parents at key FP/RH decision- making junctions Objectives: - “Mabrouk” : reaching newly wed couples ; with spousal communication and FP /RH messages when acquiring their first “ Family book” -“ Mabrouk…you are a new mom and dad”: reaching new parents with FP and spacing information when acquiring their first baby’s birth certificate. Mabrouk “ Congratulation” Initiatives Phase Two

Partner: MOI, CSPD, MOH & HPC Channel: 74 CSPD offices all over Jordan Target audience: 66,000 couples/ year Information kits for: -Spousal communication -Gender equity -Mother care -Child care -Family planning(spacing before your first child) -Spacing between pregnancies -Breastfeeding “ Mabrouk “ Congratulation” Initiatives

-Creation of Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) menu. -FP and other health messages placed on 18 million scratch cards. -SMS sent out to Umniah subscribers for 3 months 300,000 SMS every month. Free coverage of Mabrouk Initiative in Jordan Radio & TV and 4 daily newspapers Leveraging Private Sector Win-Win Relationship UMNIAH Telecommunications:

Mabrouk “ Congratulation” Evaluation main results Did the CSPD staff give you/ your husband/your fiancé or who received your family book for the first time a package entitled “Mabrouk” ? What benefit did you get from them? -92% of newly weds who issued their family book got Mabrouk packages from CSPD offices. -18% of newly weds know about Mabrouk from SMS. -73% of those read the package, this percentage. -Almost all the respondents who read the package like the contents of the booklet and the checklist. -73% of those who like the contents discussed the subjects in the package especially with their fiancés, husbands and wives.

Mabrouk “ Congratulation” Evaluation main results - 50% when asking about the benefits of these messages indicated the importance of FP and modern FP methods, then how to space between pregnancies and prenatal care percent of the respondents and/or their fiancés/wives and husbands visited MCH centers recently. - AS for the services received at these centers for those who visited them, more than half of them received information about pregnancy and birth, 15% received information about spacing. Have you or your fiancé/wife/husband visited any Mother and Child Health Center recently? What services did you or your fiancé/wife/husband received at the Mother and Child Health Center?

- Ownership of the Mabrouk initiatives - Institutionalize Mabrouk initiatives within CSPD procedures and systems. - CSPD has a CSR section built on Mabrouk initiative conceptual framework. Institutionalization and Sustainability CSPD: - Private sector: -Sponsor the initiatives - Sponsor the initiatives activities & interventions needed.