By Emmanuel Yokonia

Family Health Services (FHS) formerly Population Services International (PSI) on Friday launched a first comprehensive strategic plan for 2024-2026 as a Malawian entity.

The strategic plan aims at providing local-driven interventions in a quest to improve the country’s public health sector.

FHS executive director, Jephta Mtema, said the plan is a crucial step towards deliverance of their services.

“It gives direction towards achieving our goals and we will be able to assess our health performance and identify areas that require improvement,” said Mtema

The plan’s development is a collaborative effort between FHS and the Malawi Government.

Dr Samson Mndolo, Secretary of Health, applauded FHS for the development of the strategic plan, saying that the priorities are in tandemn with government’s health sector strategic plan 3 which was launched in 2023.

“As government we set the agenda and we invite our partners to subscribe to our plan envision to Malawi’s 2063 agenda and this is what FHS strategic plan has shown,” said Mndolo.

He added that the plan is expected to be a milestone in Malawi’s Health sector journey especially to sexual reproductive related services.

“As the government we are looking forward to positive impact of this FHS strategic plan” he emphasised.

In October 2021, Family Health Services (FHS) disbanded in Population Services International (PSI) in order to be able to approach indigenous Malawians with local driven interventions.

Among others, priority health areas for FHS include HIV Prevention, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, and Malaria Prevention.

Before deconsolidation PSI Malawi has been the country’s one of the pillars in family planning.

With the initiatives and efforts by FHS, Women in Malawi have roughly double the rate of modern contraceptive use with 58% when compared with women across the rest Sub-Saharan Africa with 29%.