&
Computerization
Summer 1999
Jamaica
Country Paper
LearnLink
Culture
LearnLink
Jamaica Computerization & Culture Summer 1999
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he National Family Planning Board (NFPB) was created in 1970 as the principal
agency of the Government of Jamaica to design, promote and implement family
planning and population awareness programs throughout the country.
The NFPBs mission is to help achieve the development and demographic goals of Jamaica by:
ensuring the maintenance of a reduced population growth rate;
promoting family planning; coordinating and implementing services that contribute to
everyones reproductive health;
ensuring ready availability of contraceptives and information about family planning; and
providing training and support to other family planning organizations.
The NFPB also operates a nationwide family life education program.
One of NFPBs most important responsibilities is to supply a network of 350 government,
private and NGO family planning clinics with contraceptives and education and social
marketing materials.
The Academy for Educational Developments (AED) LearnLink project, with funding from
USAID/Jamaica, was contracted to help the NFPB establish a computer and communications
network throughout the institution. Such networks have shown to improve administrative
efficiency, management capacity, internal communication, and professional development.
NFPBs headquarters is in Kingston, with four regional offices, nine parochial offices, three
family planning clinics in 12 remote locations, and a total staff of 88 throughout Jamaica. Before
the computerization initiative, the entire NFPB had only six non-networked computers for its
critical tasks: one for statistics data entry, two for accounting, two for all word processing work,
and one for a contraceptives warehouse. The NFPBs needs far outweighed their computers
capacity. Professional staff work in areas involving sophisticated data analysis, research,
communication materials production, resource center management, inventory