PIP: At the Inter-Governmental Coordinating Committee Workshop on an Integrated Approach towards Family Planning and Health Programs held at Kuala Lumpur from March 23 to 25, 1977, the feasibility of integrating family planning with nutrition and parasite control through the proper planning of motivational considerations, resource allocation and coordination was studied in detail. Discussion focused on the experience of participating countries in generating community participation in total health programs. Malaysia reported that in the expansion of the national program into the rural areas functional integration has been the approach. In Indonesia nutrition has been an important objective of maternal and child health services. A total integrated development approach has been the objective in the Philippines where family planning information-education-communication has been integrated with nutrition programs and a pilot project on integration of family planning and parasite control has been conducted. Thailand reported on the introduction of an integrated family planning and parasite control program, while Sri Lanka reported on an integrated approach that included family planning with maternity and child health services. A recommendation of the meeting was that experimental pilot projects be established which include nutrition and parasite control elements within the framework of family planning services.
PIP: The goals of the Malaysian Family Planning Program are not only to reduce population growth from 3% to 2% by 1985 and to bring the crude birth rate to 28.2 from 30.3, but to generally improve the health of the family, and to enhance the government's efforts to raise the per capita income. The work program is divided into the Creative Unit, the Media Unit, the Production Unit, and the Field Diffusion Unit. The objectives are to build up strong support from political, community, and opinion leaders, and to run educational campaigns aimed at motivating potential acceptors. The program also runs centers training medical and paramedical personnel. The program is combined with development programs for women, especially useful among the rural population.