Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council (ZNFPC) is a Government of Zimbabwe parastatal, under the Ministry of Health and Child Care (MOHCC). Established by an Act of Parliament, formation of ZNFPC marked a heightened commitment by government to offer family planning services as part of primary health care services.
ZNFPC is mandated to coordinate, take leadership and support implementation of integrated Family Planning (FP) and related Sexual Reproductive Health (SRH) services in Zimbabwe. These include; provision of technical assistance to the FP programme, quality control for all public and private sector FP services, training of all health service providers in FP, demand creation materials (IEC) for FP and related SRH issues, conducting FP and related SRH researches, and procurement and distribution of contraceptives for the country.
FP service delivery is through the following approaches: Community Based Distribution (CBD), Facility Based Provision at health facilities, Youth-friendly Adolescent and Youth Sexual Reproductive Health (ASRH), and Outreach services. The major family planning service providers are Ministry of Health and Child Care, City Health Departments, Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council (ZNFPC), Population Services Zimbabwe (PSZ), Population Services International Zimbabwe (PSI/Zim) as well as Private Sector (Doctors, Hospitals and Clinics).
Programming is guided by achieving Sustainable Development Goal of eradicating extreme poverty, promoting good health and well-being as well as to promote gender equality amongst communities. Focus is drawn from attainment of the FP2020 commitments. Key documents for the FP programme in Zimbabwe include; National Health Strategy, Zimbabwe National HIV and AIDS Strategic Plan II, National Family Planning Strategy, National FP Costed Implementation Plan and National ASRH II Strategy (2016 – 2020). Two main goals of the Zimbabwe National Family Planning Strategy are; Increase Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR) from 59% to 68% by 2020; and Reduce teenage pregnancy rate from 24% to 12% by 2020. According to ZNFPCIP (2016 – 2020), by the year 2015 the CPR was at 67% out of the targeted 68% while teenage pregnancy was at 22%.
Under the ZNFP Strategy there are five strategic thematic areas to focus on, these are; enabling environment, commodity security, service delivery, demand creation and monitoring and evaluation. Cutting across these strategy areas are three key strategic priorities that will drive the family planning agenda forward: reducing teenage pregnancies, providing family planning services in integrated settings, and increasing utilization of long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) and permanent methods
ZNFPC clinics offer comprehensive integrated services on family planning and related reproductive health. The organization provides contraceptive products and services, education and counselling, breast and cervical cancer screening, fertility services, voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC), sexually transmitted infections screening and treatment, HIV Testing Services and referrals. ZNFPC is a centre of excellence in FP Training, offering a range of family planning clinical courses.