Binka FN, Nazzar A, Phillips JF.
In 1994, an experiment was launched
by the Navrongo Health Research Centre that will test the demographic impact of
community health and family planning services in a rural, traditional area of
northern Ghana. While exhaustive social research has been directed to clarifying
societal constraints to reproductive change, relatively little is known about
how African cultural characteristics can be a resource to family planning
programs. This study will clarify ways in which cultural resources of a
traditional African society can be used in efforts to foster reproductive
change. This article reviews characteristics of the study population, the design
of the Navrongo experiment, and the research plan. The Navrongo Project will be
the first African experimental trial of the demographic impact of family
planning.
PIP: The persistence of high fertility in sub-Saharan Africa has been
investigated extensively over the past decade. While the social forces which
sustain high fertility and impede family planning programs are well understood,
appropriate policy responses to the circumstances, however, continue to be
debated. Relatively little is known about how African cultural characteristics
can be a resource to family planning programs. An experiment was launched in
1994 by the Navrongo Health Research Center to test the demographic impact of
community health and family planning services in a rural, traditional area of
northern Ghana. The study will clarify ways in which cultural resources of a
traditional African society can be used to foster reproductive change. A field
station has been established where a partnership was developed between health
professionals and traditional village groups for designing culturally sensitive
approaches to family planning services. The experiment, to be conducted by the
Navrongo Health Research Center (NHRC), a research station of the Ghanaian
Ministry of Health, will appraise the demographic impact of the program and
foster policy based upon the lessons learned. The population monitored by the
NHRC research system receives all of its allopathic health care and
contraceptive services from primary health care programs of the Ministry of
Health. The Ministry has established close collaboration between the District
Health Management Team which directs the program and the research team of the
NHRC. This collaborative arrangement permits flexibility in designing field
operations so that varying work routines, staffing patterns, or the intensity of
services can be tailored to the requirements of research protocols.
Collaboration between service providers and researchers makes the Navrongo
project uniquely suited for a study of the demographic role of family planning.
This article reviews characteristics of the study population, the design of the
Navrongo experiment, and the research plan. The Navrongo project will be the
first African experimental trial of the demographic impact of family planning.
PMID: 7570763