About JOICFP

JOICFP is a Japan-based international NGO that promotes the fundamental human right of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), as well as gender equality, women’s empowerment, and individual agency. Established in 1968, JOICFP grew out of a desire to share Japan’s strategies for success in family planning and maternal and child health after World War II, emphasizing a preventative, community-based approach. Since then, we have expanded our scope in both mission and geography. In over 40 countries across the globe, we have supported women and girls who suffer from SRH and gender disparities through efforts to protect their right to make informed decisions regarding their own sexuality, reproduction, and wellbeing.

Vision

JOICFP envisions a world where every individual and family has their basic human needs met, including sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), in a society that upholds equality and respects the agency of individuals.

Mission

JOICFP strives to create a society in which all people, especially women and girls in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), have the power to make informed decisions regarding their sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) by ensuring access to quality services and comprehensive information.

Core values

Rights-based perspective:

Sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), including family planning, is a fundamental human right that is essential for the well-being of all individuals. SRHR means that each of us has the appropriate knowledge and right to self-determination regarding sexuality and reproduction, as well as essential healthcare. The international community widely advocates for SRHR as a fundamental human right following the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the United Nations in 2015.

Ensuring Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment:

We promote SRHR to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of all women through increasing access to healthcare, education, career opportunities, and more.

Lifecycle Approach:

In promoting SRHR, we aim to provide quality services and comprehensive information at every stage of life.

Community-centered Initiatives:

JOICFP’s activities are rooted in community. We support communities in taking the initiative to fulfill their own health needs.

Universal Access to SRHR Services:

We work to realize universal access to SRHR services, including maternal health and family planning.

Partnership:

In the spirit of collaboration and cooperation, JOICFP builds strategic partnerships with civil society organizations, corporations, governments, the United Nations and other international organizations, specialized research institutes, and more.

Contribution to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development:

JOICFP strives to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by making full use of our expertise.

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Every two minutes, a woman dies due to pregnancy, childbirth, or cervical cancer — lives that could be saved through the promotion of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). In many cases, such deaths are a result of issues related to teenage pregnancy, unsafe abortion, lack of prenatal checkups, and sudden complications during childbirth without skilled health personnel present. Women also face a variety of gender-based problems, including violence rooted in gender inequality, obstacles to education and career opportunities, and harmful practices such as child marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM).

JOICFP is dedicated to improving SRHR and gender equality, especially among women and girls by providing SRHR information and services, as well as strengthening community health systems. We partner closely with local stakeholders, including women, youth, and healthcare providers, to identify needs and co-create impactful solutions. This collaboration has led to meaningful improvements in access to healthcare, SRHR education, and local income generation to sustain a viable community health system. In FY2023, JOICFP implemented 19 projects in 8 countries across Asia and Africa, benefiting 6.6 million people. Our approach is rooted in enhancing local stakeholders’ capacities to establish sustainable health systems that integrate volunteer efforts with public health administrations. We also work with young people, aiming to enhance their access to healthcare and understanding of their SRHR, and encouraging their active involvement as peer educators.

JOICFP also engages in multifaceted advocacy efforts domestically and internationally for legislative and administrative actions to advance SRHR and gender equality. In Japan, JOICFP amplifies youth voices in policy discussions, co-chairs the Gender Unit of the Japan Civil Society Network on SDGs, serves as secretariat for the Japan Civil Society Organizations (CSO) Network on Global Health (GII/IDI Network) to foster collaboration between NGOs and the government on global health initiatives, among other actions. JOICFP plays a key role in international forums such as the G7 and G20 Summits, and the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD).

By combining local and global efforts, JOICFP is committed to creating lasting impact and fostering communities where women and girls can thrive physically, mentally, and socially.

Approach

Building on Japan’s post-war success in improving maternal health through community-based initiatives, JOICFP empowers local stakeholders to create sustainable, locally-driven, culturally sensitive solutions. We work with the local stakeholders from planning to implementation and sustainment, enhancing local stakeholder capacities via off- and on-the-job training. Our efforts focus on capacity enhancement of healthcare and community leaders to improve access to SRH care and information. We value a preventative approach, reducing avoidable suffering and loss of life while also relieving financial and emotional burdens on families and hospitals. Such an approach is more sustainable and humane, thereby fostering more resilient communities.

Capacity Enhancement & Empowerment:

There are three main target groups we work with to promote SRHR empowerment. These target groups demonstrate leadership in our projects and work with other locals to solve problems:

1. Community health volunteers: Strengthen their communication skills to encourage positive health behaviours and combat harmful social norms
2. Healthcare workers: Strengthen their capacity to provide respectful, client-centered SRH care
3. Community leaders: Strengthen their capacity to lead sustainable community health systems including support for health volunteers and medical workers, as well as training leaders in income generation to financially support such systems

Sustainability through Community-Led Partnership:

Even after a project period has reached its end and JOICFP is no longer involved, we want the positive changes to continue to propagate by the community themselves. From design to implementation and evaluation stages, we work from a grassroots level, together with local stakeholders such as residents, community leaders, schools and healthcare facilities, NGOs, and authorities. At the start of each project, we conduct thorough needs assessments in close collaboration with these stakeholders to identify gaps and prioritize interventions. This ensures that interventions are effective, align with local values, and foster community ownership.

Our model emphasizes shared responsibility — JOICFP provides funding, technical expertise, and facilitation, while local health authorities oversee healthcare service delivery, allocate personnel, and coordinate with regional leaders. Even when providing material support, such as the construction and maintenance of facilities, we work together with the community members for inclusive decision-making and to create mechanisms that enable self-sufficient operation and development. This also ensures that our programs are relevant and built upon the strengths and prioritized needs identified by the community. Participatory approaches, such as Social and Behavioral Change Communication (SBCC) and co-creation of facilities and usage guidelines with communities, foster a strong sense of ownership.

Post-project, local health committees and community volunteers continue to support health services sustainably using funds they generate through JOICFP-trained methods such as craft sales. To maximize long-term impact, we develop detailed action plans to sustain dissemination of SRHR information and provision of quality health services long after the project concludes. We also work with existing associations with financial and human resources and partner with local governments and the private sector to institutionalize SRH programs. Such approaches have yielded significant, lasting improvements in community health systems and individual behaviors.

For instance, in Zambia, JOICFP’s Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health One-Stop Service Project successfully established referral systems which transfer clients to healthcare services by community health volunteers. The project also constructed maternity waiting houses and trained health personnel, community volunteers, and local health committee members in maternal and child health, family planning, client-centered care, SBCC, income generation and accounting. The project resulted in increased facility-based deliveries, improved antenatal care attendance, and enhanced access to quality health services. This sustainability was highlighted in the FY2023 External Evaluation Report by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, which noted the project’s role in reducing maternal deaths and creating national training hubs for medical professionals as a showcase of a resilient community-supported health system. Similar impacts have been documented in other countries where JOICFP trained community volunteers and peer educators. In Japan, former peer educators have established their own organizations to promote SRHR and regularly report successful organizational outcomes.

Cultural Sensitivity:

SRHR remains a sensitive and often taboo topic in many societies. Therefore, it is essential to approach these issues and the design of related projects with cultural sensitivity so that initiatives are relevant, accessible, and inclusive. To this end, JOICFP empowers local communities to develop their own context-conscious approaches, particularly effective communication strategies.

How we measure our impact

JOICFP assesses the effectiveness of its efforts through comprehensive monitoring and evaluation.

At the onset of projects, monitoring and evaluation (M&E) plans are developed in close collaboration with local stakeholders to ensure M&E implementation is integrated into their routine work. Methods of collecting data are aligned to those set by local administrations such as service statistics that health administrations routinely collect and analyze. JOICFP sets up project steering committees (PSCs) that include local stakeholder representatives such as healthcare providers and administrators, community leaders, and community health volunteers. PSCs hold regular monitoring meetings where the monitoring data is analyzed to discuss challenges and revise strategies to address them. Follow-up on agreed measures is done by the JOICFP team in close consultation with relevant stakeholders.

At the end of projects, surveys are conducted to evaluate effectiveness, impact, sustainability, relevance, and efficiency, and to identify good practices and lessons learned. When resources are available, third parties such as academic institutes are invited to conduct an evaluation. The outcomes are reflected upon at the PSCs to strengthen sustainability plans. JOICFP also holds internal reviews of the outcomes for other on-going and future projects. For example, Nagasaki University professor conducted an impact evaluation at the end of a project in Ghana, and its encouraging findings were reported as an academic paper (PMCID: PMC11588241). These findings were shared with key stakeholders to improve JOICFP’s other projects.

History

Founded in 1968 by Kunii Chojiro, JOICFP was established to leverage Japan’s post-war experience in family planning and maternal health to support low- and middle-income countries. Kunii’s philosophy of humanistic family planning and community-led initiatives has guided the organization’s approach for over five decades. JOICFP’s projects have been implemented internationally in over 40 countries across Africa, Latin America, and Asia (including Japan).

By the mid-1970s, JOICFP began collaborating with member associations of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) in Asia, integrating family planning with maternal and child health and broader public health goals. A major turning point came in 1994 with the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), which spurred JOICFP to launch reproductive health initiatives through Japanese Official Development Assistance. Since then, JOICFP has remained a key partner of the Government of Japan in the field of SRHR. Between 2000 and 2024 (as of January 31, 2025), JOICFP has managed 164 projects across 32 countries.

Following the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, JOICFP expanded its focus to include domestic initiatives. In addition to providing disaster relief to women affected by earthquakes and tsunamis, the organization launched the I LADY. (Love, Act, Decide Yourself.) campaign in 2016 to promote youth education and empowerment. JOICFP has also been actively involved in advocacy and making policy recommendations to create a more equitable and inclusive environment for marginalized communities at both community and institutional levels.

Awards

2019: Letter of Appreciation from Japan Sports Agency
2017: Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Partnership Award by the Prime Minister of Japan and his Cabinet (first recipient)
2016: Yomiuri International Cooperation Award
2001: United Nations Population Award
2000: Obtained United Nations (UN) Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Consultative Status
1991: Foreign Minister’s Award
1990: Letter of Appreciation from JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) President

Financials

Refer to the last page of our annual reports to see the financial report for the corresponding year (presently only available in Japanese).