The role of grassroots organizations in promoting population programmes: The case of Cebu, Philippines

A major outcome of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) is the expansion of population programmes to include reproductive health services and strategies to raise the status of women (United Nations, 1994). Grassroots women’s organizations influenced the recommendations as well as the strategies for their implementation. In the pre-planning stages within countries and during the Conference itself, the Women’s Caucus, representing more than 400 organizations from 62 countries, stressed the important role that women’s empowerment plays in promoting acceptance and use of reproductive health services (Ashford, 1995). They argued that women who are empowered, that is, who have control over their lives and have skills in seeking information and using resources, are more likely to make their own reproductive decisions.