Organizing community participation in family planning projects in South Asia

"Community participation" is a popular phrase with policymakers but the operational implications of putting the idea into practice are not clearly understood. This paper presents the findings from a comparative analysis of seven case studies of community participation projects implemented by the nongovernmental Family Planning Associations (FPAs) of India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. The analysis focuses on the interactions between staff and communities and assesses the extent to which the organization of the FPAs encourages and enables participation in project implementation. The results suggest that, despite the policy rhetoric seeking greater community involvement and self-reliance in program implementation, FPAs most commonly use participation as a means to generate new demand for services by presenting family planning in a manner that is acceptable and appropriate to the communities involved.