Dates: July 6-15, 2011

Please join MCHIP and the Immunization/Family Planning Integration Working Group for a global online discussion forum highlighting new and emerging field experiences, lessons learned, and opportunities for immunization and family planning integrated service delivery.

The discussion will highlight opportunities for integrated programming, recent developments in immunization/family planning integration and how to make integration a win-win for both immunization and family planning outcomes.

This forum aims to lead the way forward in overcoming obstacles that have hindered integrated service delivery of family planning and immunization (such as misinformation within communities). In an effort to be inclusive to both technical areas and different perspectives, discussion topics will be led by family planning and immunization technical experts with policy and implementation experience.

The objectives of this global online forum are four-fold:

1. To introduce and provide the rationale for integrated service delivery of immunization and family planning;

2. To promote understanding of how integrated service delivery can be mutually beneficial to both the immunization and FP communities;

3. To explore how to implement an integrated service delivery approach to immunization and FP; and

4. To obtain feedback from participants based on field implementation experience.

Experts representing a variety of organizations will share field experiences and provide insights on successes and lessons learned from integrated programs within these key areas, along with potential strategies for scale-up and recommendations for future work in this area. MCHIP welcomes all interested participants to join in this rich discussion. If you are interested in participating please send your Name, Title, Organization and Email address to Elizabeth Sasser at esasser@jhpiego.net . 

During the forum, you will receive one or two emails per day (during July 6-15) from the forum administrators, with all contributions screened and presented as a single, well organized digest. You will be able to participate in the forum simply by responding to this daily digest via email. Alternatively, you can contribute to the discussion via the web by logging into the Implementing Best Practices (IBP) Knowledge Gateway at http://my.ibpinitiative.org/public/ppfp/ with your username and password.

We look forward to your participation!

Questions? Contact Elizabeth Sasser at esasser@jhpiego.net.