US helps Philippines implement family planning programmes

Nov 8, 2007, 10:14 GMT

Manila - The United States will provide a 3-million-dollar grant to the Philippines to help promote family planning in the workplace, officials said Thursday.

The grant will fund a joint project of the health and labour departments to help companies disseminate information on family planning and reproductive health among employees.

US Ambassador Kristy Kenney said the grant aims to 'bring in access to health care to private workplaces, help private companies to expand their ability to deliver health care.'

'The greatest strength we always have is our people and the greatest thing we can do is to invest in our people,' she said in a speech at the signing of the agreement on the grant.

The project will target small and medium-scale enterprises with at least 200 employees, according to Paulyn Jean Roseli Ubial, a regional director of the Department of Health.

Ubial said the US Agency for International Development (USAID) will provide training and technical support for companies to manage reproductive health units in the workplace.

USAID, the main supplier of artificial contraceptives in the Philippines for the past 30 years, is scheduled to reduce its donation programme in the country in 2008.

Population control is a touchy issue in the predominantly Catholic Philippines, where the church blasts as evil and immoral any campaign to promote the use of artificial contraceptives.

The Philippines' current population is estimated to be 88.7 million, according to government data.

The population is projected to grow at 1.95 per cent per year until 2010, when it will reach 94 million. The projected population growth rate is down from 2.34 per cent in the past decade.