The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has launched a five-year $60 million flagship programme on child spacing called Family Advancement for Life and Health (FALAH). FALAH is a visionary programme that applies lessons learned during the past 40 years about how to deliver family planning services effectively and explores new solutions to the many challenges facing Pakistan s family planning programmes, said Anne Aarnes, the Mission Director of USAID in Pakistan, according to a U.S. Embassy Islamabad statement. What we learn from the FALAH programme will help parents to space the births of their children and will significantly benefit Pakistani families. USAID s FALAH programme focuses on revitalizing the family planning efforts in Pakistan. It will increase the accessibility and use of contraceptives and birth spacing that will help in reducing high rates of maternal and infant mortality in Pakistan. FALAH is being implemented by a number of Pakistani and international organizations with Population Council, a US-based research organization, leading the consortium. It is being implemented in 20 districts in Pakistan. Support for this project is part of the $1.5 billion in aid that the U.S. Government is providing to Pakistan over five years to improve economic growth, education, health, and governance and to assist with earthquake reconstruction, the statement said.
