Member Associations

Sexual and reproductive health (SHR) statistics for the Central African Republic are some of the poorest on the continent. The need for proper, informed, accessible, safe, stigma-free sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services is paramount. The Association Centrafricaine pour le Bien-Etre Familial (ACABEF) came into being in 1987, expressly to address the urgent need for sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services. Working intensively within communities, the organization has grown rapidly over the years and now provides sexuality education and SRH services including family planning, gynaecological counselling and care, post-abortion care, antenatal care and voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) for HIV. ACABEF operates permanent and  mobile clinics with community-based distribution sites (CBDs). In addition to full-time health personnel and administrative staff, the organization relies on the dedicated support of hundreds of volunteers, a Youth Action Movement and over a hundred trained peer educators. And ACABEF's outcomes are impressive. The majority of all services were provided to poor, marginalized, socially excluded and/or under-served people.  ACABEF works in partnership with the government ministries in charge of planning, health and family and social affairs. It benefits from the support of CISJEU and its donors include UNFPA and Population Services International. ACABEF has close working relationships include CIONGCA (which coordinates the response of all NGOs working at national level), the Central African Network of People living with HIV (RECAPEV), the Réseau des Organisations Nationales de Lutte contre le SIDA (RONALSI) and Amis d’Afrique.  

Founded in 1957, the Jamaica Family Planning Association (FAMPLAN) pioneered family planning services in Jamaica and played a major role in establishing government policy and programmes. FAMPLAN supports the national programme by providing family planning information and education and offering services to underserved peripheral communities. As an adjunct to government provision, FAMPLAN provides sterilization facilities. The organization is a major advocate of the need to institute sex education in schools and of the need to develop greater understanding of, and support for, family planning among leaders. The Member Association seeks to heighten awareness of its work in the media and among professional groups. One of FAMPLAN's key objectives is to integrate HIV and AIDS and sexually transmitted infection (STI) services into its overall family planning offering. Staff highlight the dual benefits of condom use for the prevention of both unwanted pregnancy and STI transmission, including HIV. An important part of the Association's work is to empower women to assert their right to refuse unsafe sex, by teaching them safe sex negotiating skills. FAMPLAN is an associate member of the umbrella organization the Caribbean Family Planning Affiliation. The Caribbean Family Planning Affiliation (CFPA) is the only regional non-governmental organization (NGO) devoted to family planning and sexual and reproductive health in the Caribbean. CFPA serves 13 island Member Associations and 5 Associate Member Associations in the Caribbean, Central and South America. It supports these Associations with technical assistance and materials, and represents their collective interests at IPPF meetings and in the Caribbean region among governments and NGOs. CFPA Member Associations are located in Anguilla, Antigua, Aruba, Bahamas, Bermuda, Curacao, Dominica, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Nevis and St. Kitts, St. Lucia and St. Vincent. CFPA Associate Member Associations are located in Belize, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago. The CFPA does not offer any clinical services or distribute family planning methods to clients, but rather focuses its work on governance and institution-building among its Member Associations. The CFPA oversees, manages and analyses core grants to 7 Caribbean Member Associations. The CFPA also submits project proposals for donor funding on behalf of the Associations.