Impact Data - Male Motivation Campaign for Family Planning

Among religious leaders there was a significant change in knowledge of Islam's perception and teachings on family planning. At baseline, 37% of the leaders interviewed reported knowledge of a verse in the Koran or Hadith that favoured the practice of FP; at follow-up 93% reported such knowledge.

There was a significant increase for both men and women in being able to name at least one modern FP method, although the increase was greater for women than for men (29.2% increase for men, 35.8% increase for women). Figures also showed that campaign exposure was directly related to increased FP knowledge levels. Men with no exposure to the campaign showed an 18.2% knowledge level compared to a 92.6% knowledge level with a high level of exposure to the campaign. Women had a 39.7% knowledge level with no exposure to the campaign and an 89.5% knowledge level after the campaign.

The figures for women who had encouraged someone to use FP increased slightly after the campaign: 14.1% before and 17.6% after. Other figures show that the level of exposure to the campaign had a direct effect on the increase of men and women who have encouraged someone to use a FP method. The campaign had a solid impact on ideation for men, but was not quite as significant for women. The figures for men and women who were currently using a modern method of FP were quite low, and in fact, dropped for men in the follow-up survey. 13.1% of men reported using a modern method of FP before the programme compared to 12.7% at follow-up survey. Only 3.9% of women reported using a modern FP method at the baseline survey, compared to 4.9% at the follow-up survey. The significant increase in figures comes for those men and women who were currently using a modern method of FP but were not using a modern FP method in the initial survey: At no exposure, 1.9% of men reported using a FP method compared to 13.8% with high exposure. With no exposure, 0.4% of women reported practicing modern FP, compared to13.1% with high exposure. It was felt that, "among women, even low levels of exposure appeared to have led to significant, positive contraceptive behaviour change".

Among religious leaders, there were significant changes in attitudes surrounding modern contraception and its relationship to Islam. Those who believed Islam supports the use of family planning for child spacing increased from 55% at baseline to 94% at follow-up. Although the majority of the respondents still believed Islam condemns the use of family planning for limiting the number of births, the data showed a decline in this attitude. In all cases, the percent who believed that specific FP methods are forbidden by Islam declined: from 69.8% to 45.8% for vasectomy, from 52.1% to 22.9% for implants, and from 33.7% to 15.6% for the condom. Notably, the least amount of change was recorded in changes of attitude toward the use of the pill.

In the general population, there was a greater increase from baseline figures for men showing their approval of FP following the campaign. Overall, more women (69.8%) approved of FP than men (65.7%). There was only a slight change in attitude about family size after completion of the programme. Women continue to feel that a family size of 5+ children is the norm (5.9 children before the campaign and 5.6 children after the campaign). The percentages of people in the community who approved of FP were felt to be much higher by both men and women who had the greatest exposure to the campaign.

The family planning (FP) programme had a direct effect on increased discussion, especially for men. Before the programme, 23.3% of men discussed FP with someone and after the programme 44.9% had discussed FP. The figures for women were 26.8% who discussed FP before exposure to the campaign and 37.8% who discussed FP after exposure. Again, the numbers were significantly greater for men than women in regards to those who discussed FP with a spouse/partner. Before exposure to the programme, 17.8% of men had discussed FP over the past 12 months compared to 31.1% of men who discussed FP with their spouse/partner after being exposed to the campaign. There was a very slight increase for women who discussed FP with a spouse/partner: 21.6% before exposure and 24.6% after exposure. Figures show that the increased discussion of FP with a spouse/partner is directly related to campaign exposure.