Policy and Governance A supportive policy environment is vital to the effective governance and oversight of programs under the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health (RPRH) Law. In 2019, the national government prioritized the enactment of key policies that provide guidance and strengthen the coordination among key actors under the RPRH Law. This section highlights these major policy gains. Clarifying Roles to Improve Family Planning Promotion and Service Delivery The DOH and POPCOM Joint Memorandum Circular (JMC) No. 2019-01 signed last February 2019 served as an operational framework for the co-management implementation of a strengthened and intensified implementation of family planning in the country. The two agencies complement their work in family planning implementation as DOH focuses on promoting women’s health and rights while POPCOM is more on advocacy for family planning for population and development [Annex 1]. Morever, DOH and POPCOM shifted its program beneficiary focus from catering to “married women” only to “all women”. The RPRH Law and Universal Health Care Act guarantee that all Filipinos have equitable access to quality and affordable reproductive health care goods and services and are protected against financial risk. This shift broadens the program clientele to cover unmarried and sexually active women including adolescents, provided that parental consent is secured. In light of the program shift, DOH and POPCOM re-calibrated their FP targets setting a more realistic yet still ambitious target in modern contraceptive prevalence rate (mCPR) of 30 percent all women from 65 percent married women. The DOH recognizes the role of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) as strong advocates and partners of family planning promotion and service delivery. While one of the strategies of the National Family Planning Program is to increase public sector FP service availability, DOH recognizes that not all women of reproductive age avail of services in government facilities. Hence, in 2019, the DOH drafted the Guidelines for the Accreditation of Civil Society Organizations as Implementing Entities of Programs and Projects of the DOH (AO 2020-0002). This policy will allow the transfer of DOH funds/commodities to CSOs to complement service delivery point efforts in providing FP services. Currently, the policy is on its final stage of development. In the last quarter of 2019, the DOH commissioned the Philippine Institute of Development Studies (PIDS) to conduct a fiveyear assessment of the implementation of the RPRH Law. The objective of the study is to evaluate the implementation of the Law in terms of governance and organization design, financing, local service delivery, reproductive health education and campaign, and logistic and supply chain. The inception report had been submitted and preliminary key informant interviews were conducted. An initial report will be released by the first quarter of 2020. 25 2019 Annual Report Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012