Population Education in Eastern European Context.
Does it exist? Who does it?
Polish case.
Panel on Adult Education and Population Issues in the Post-Cairo Context
16 July 1997, Hamburg
5th International Conference on Adult Education
Country background
Poland, similarly to most countries of Eastern and Central Europe (ECE), has never experienced the problem of excessive birth rate. The threat of overpopulation has not existed in the region. The population policies have never been in a mainstream of government policies.
Awareness about population issues has been always very low in the Polish society. It was also far insufficient among politicians and other decision-makers. Poland as other ECE countries has not been active in international debates and discussions on population issues. The general feeling was that population, understood mainly as overpopulation, is not the priority issue for state programs.
Such understanding of population policies was to a certain degree justified by international approach to population which for so long was focused on birth rate reduction. Until quite recently, international agencies showed no or little interest in population issues in the region of ECE.
Unlike in developing countries, family planning has not been sufficiently promoted throughout the region in government policies and programs. Dramatically decreasing birth rate makes it even more difficult to promote family planning.
Additionally in Poland, the strong influence of the Roman-Catholic Church contributed to perceiving population policies as highly political and sensitive issues and resulted in limited number of programs run by the government.
The government policies put main focus on maternal and child care.
Such issues like family planning, prevention of STDs and HIV/AIDS, sex education for the youth, reproductive and sexual health problems of young people and older people, violence against women are not treated as a priority and so far have been overlooked.
Similarly, the relevant population education in not included in government policies and programs. The achievements of the Cairo and Beijing conferences are not adequately popularized not only among the general public but also among key decision-makers.
Therefore, the activities of non-governmental organisations in the field of population education instead of being complementary to government's activities play the main role in promoting the Cairo and Beijing documents. The main organisation that undertakes such education activities is the Federation for Women and Family Planning.
The activities of the Federation for Women and Family Planning
The Federation for Women and Family Planning is promoting the achievements of the ICPD Programme of Action and the FWCW Platform for Action through the following programs:
1) information and education activities addressed to individuals, particularly women and the youth.
Information and education activities: messages, materials and activities for the general public to enable them to make informed decisions and take actions to protect their health and accomplish their reproductive intentions. The objective is to inform.
The main goal of such education programs is to empower women and young people so that they can make decisions about their reproduction and sexuality and exercise informed choice.
Main education programs are:
· telephone 'hotline' for women
· series of publications addressed to different groups of population
· 'Open Days for Women' & 'Open Days for Youth' - open discussion meetings on different reproductive and sexual health and rights programs.
The focus is on promoting preventive health measures, including family planning, prevention of female cancers by teaching breast self-examination, breaking gender stereotypes, taboos around sexuality, patients rights as human rights etc. Participants are encouraged to talk with others in the group or individually, if needed, about their RH concerns. It is also planned to involve peer groups providing counseling for the youth.
2) Simultaneously, the Federation is educating the society through advocacy actions.
Advocacy includes such promotional methods, messages, material and activities that persuade key actors to undertake desired actions. The objective is to motivate actions, to promote change.
The objective of education is not only to inform and pass the knowledge but to teach people to be critical about the messages that are being passed. The desired effect is to present population policies as a dynamic process which can be influenced, changed and improved.
Target groups
The Federation is targeting the following groups:
- decision-makers
- media
- individuals & group supporters such as
1) 4,000 people in the country
2) NGOs, women's groups, health promotion groups
3) other „surrogate" groups: medical community - doctors, nurses, midwives, teachers etc.
The scope of education through advocacy activities
Reproductive health and rights as key components of population policies are promoted in the Federation's programs, with particular emphasis on:
- health as well-being,
- health throughout life cycle,
- health as a human right,
- sexual and reproductive rights of individuals to make decisions about sexuality and reproduction free of coercion, discrimination and violence.
The emphasis is put on the obligations of the state to provide:
- RH information and services of high quality,
- education on reproductive and sexual health for young people.
Forms of activities
Advocacy activities include:
# Written materials such as
- the bulletin for the supporters, to mobilize supporters actions,
- fact sheets for decision-makers,
- press releases, letters-to-editor for the media;
# workshops on RH issues for local activists;
# roundtable discussions with politicians and key decision-makers;
New forms of communication such as internet have recently been adopted to promotion of RH issues.
Examples of advocacy activities
Campaign for legalization sterilization
In Poland sterilization as a method of FP is illegal. There is little knowledge about this method, about international standards.
Fact sheets were sent to decision-makers, the media.
It attracted a lot of attention of the media (newspapers and weeklies (case story promoted by the Federation of a man having illegal sterilization), and radio programs - live discussions with people calling the radio station).
The Ministry of Health also reacted by sending our fact sheet to key gynecologists with a letter asking for their opinion.
We expect a lot of opposition before sterilization is legalized but the issue that has been ignored for so long has been initiated.
Report on women's reproductive health
The Federation carried out the survey on women's RH.
By collecting information we also provided information.
The questionnaire consisted of 64 questions, many of them asked for the first time in Poland. Some questions educated about:
- proper behavior of health personnel,
- human rights of a patient: right to dignity, privacy, confidentiality, right to information, right to choice,
- RH in sequence of time, including pre- and post-reproductive age.
Question on sterilization was also included in the questionnaire.
The feedback was exceptional: over 1,200 answers. We had to close it, but questionnaires are still coming, ca 2,000.
Many women were writing about their experiences on extra paper.
The final report of the survey includes key definitions of Cairo and Beijing as well as our recommendations addressed to key institutions such as the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, medical schools, health personnel associations etc.
The report was sent to the media, decision-makers.
Round-table discussion was organized.
The media covered the report to great extent.
Guide on reproductive health and rights
The Guide is presently being prepared. The Guide will serve as a tool for local and national advocates aiming at promotion RH & R.
Its main objectives are:
- identify main RH issues in Poland;
- identify country health programs, main mechanisms, key actors and potential partners;
- identify international obligation of Poland and relevant human rights instruments.
Conclusion
Since the resources are scarce, we are trying to be creative in making our activities as much multifunctional as possible. It means that one action may
1) be directed to different groups of population,
2) may have more than one objectives, e.g. gather information and inform in the same time or inform and ask for support.
By teaching population issues we promote the model of active participation and building the civil society. We promote democracy in the grassroots level. We promote the partnership of NGOs in planning, implementation and monitoring the government's policies and programs. This aspect of our activities is particularly important in the new democratic society.
Partnership model of education - we treat people as partners, subjects not passive objects of our activities. Active involvement of different actors is crucial to population education. Our experience shows that is the most effective way of teaching.
In the same time we learn a lot by educating others and try to be creative in inventing teaching techniques (docendo discimus).