The Policy and Strategic Planning Unit facilitated the Planning and Development Department and the Population Welfare Department in the establishment of the Punjab Population Innovation Fund (PPIF), a public sector company set up to assist the province in achieving its population development goals.
The Punjab Growth Strategy recognizes that while Punjab is poised to reap the demographic dividend to population growth, continuing population growth at existing rates would only mean that critical resources would have to be diverted to the provision of essential services like health care, education, housing etc., slowing down progress on economic and development goals. The Punjab Population Policy envisages universal access to reproductive health services leading to achievement of the replacement level fertility rate in the province by the year 2030.
The Punjab Population Innovation Fund (PPIF) has been established in response to the development imperative of improving the accessibility, availability and quality of family planning services and for addressing information gaps that impede their uptake by married couples, in order to achieve fertility decline in Punjab.
The PPIF aims to provide financial assistance for implementation of projects that are based on innovative, financially sustainable and potentially scalable approaches towards delivery of family planning services. The PPIF aims to become a ‘market maker’, incentivizing greater involvement of the private sector, leveraging on best practices and introducing targeted interventions informed by evidence of consumers’ needs. Innovative projects that demonstrate impact would be institutionalized and replicated for scale.
PPIF funded projects for doorstep delivery of family planning services and counseling are currently being implemented in Rawalpindi and Muzzafargarh. PPIF is also focusing on identifying technology based solutions to exponentially increase access to family planning services.
Role of PSPU
The PSPU coordinated activities that led to the creation of the company including provision of technical assistance through consultants in its inception phase. To date, it continues to monitor and report PPIF’s progress against DLIs while maintaining its technical support through engaging the services of the Organizational Development Expert.
