DEVELOPING A CULTURALLY APPROPRIATE FAMILY-PLANNING PROGRAM FOR THE NAVRONGO EXPERIMENT

This article describes the first six months of the strategic planning process to develop a culturally appropriate community health and famil y planning program for a traditional community in a district of northe rn Ghana, served by the Navrongo Health Research Centre. To explain th e context within which fertility decisions are made, this article desc ribes the district's severe ecological, social, economic, and health c onstraints to family planning. It discusses related programmatic obsta cles and presents the strategies developed to respond to them. A syste m of care has been developed that is closely coordinated with traditio nal leaders and communication networks. Management systems support out reach workers by emphasizing the importance of peer leadership, superv isory support, and community liaison in the implementation of village- based services. A large-scale experiment will be fielded to test the d emographic impact of this approach.