China

With 1.3 billion people, China is the world’s most populous country, and government policies to limit population growth have significantly reduced the country’s birth rate. To ensure that individual rights are protected, in 2002, China enacted the Population and Family Planning Law, which establishes couples' reproductive rights and safeguards their right to make informed and voluntary decisions about their reproductive health.

With support from the Ford Foundation, EngenderHealth has partnered with China’s National Population and Family Planning Commission (NPFPC) to strengthen the country’s reproductive health system and encourage a client-centered approach to reproductive health services. Since 2004 EngenderHealth has:

• Developed China’s first training manual for comprehensive sexual and reproductive health counseling. The culturally sensitive methodology emphasizes gender equity, informed choice, sexuality, and clients’ rights.
• Established a core group of national trainers who have been educated in the project’s methodology. In addition to improving their own technical skills, the doctors and nurses who complete EngenderHealth’s training courses are trained to teach others, so that even one training event can have far-reaching effects.
• Sponsored a series of workshops designed to improve providers’ technical skills.