The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) family planning training, in support of the Ministry of Health and Medical Services (MHMS), was held on September 8, funded by the government of Australia.
In a media statement, UNFPA said this was a follow-up to an earlier training the UNFPA had provided in 2020 to 31 family planning trainers in Fiji on the newly developed Adolescent Friendly, Disability Inclusive and Gender Responsive Family Planning training package, with the support from Family Planning New South Wales (FPNSW).
“The training package is designed with a client-centered approach focusing on rights-based provision of family planning services,” UNFPA said.
“This year, Fiji MHMS is rolling out this integrated training package to health service providers using a ‘cascade model’ that includes a refresher training of trainers (TOT) for these master trainers who were trained in 2020, followed also by separate training to healthcare workers who have not been previously trained.
“The cascade training in the Central Division is the first of four such trainings scheduled to be rolled out this year by the Ministry of Health and Medical Services with the support of UNFPA Pacific.”
UNFPA Pacific’s chief of health (Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights technical adviser) Titilola Duro-Aina said demystifying and overcoming health care workers’ own unconscious bias regarding the provision of family planning services through quality-assured training was one of the key accelerators in reducing the high unmet need for family planning in the Pacific.
“Especially for vulnerable and marginalised populations in hard-to-reach areas,” Dr Duro-Aina said.
Alumita Cataki, a midwife from the Makoi maternity unit in Suva said after completing the family planning training by UNFPA she was confident she would be able to provide better advice to her fellow women who visited the hospitals in choosing the right family planning method which was suitable for them.
Ms Cataki was among the 24 health service providers from 18 health facilities across the Central Division who were participating in a capacity development workshop on family planning at Pacific Harbour provided by UNFPA.
The training will conclude on September 21 with a three-day hands-on practical sessions organised on site at various family planning clinics across the division.
