Building the Capacity of IPPF Affiliates in West Africa: Use of a New Tool for Organizational Capacity Assessment

Although many African countries have seen substantial increases in family planning (FP), use of modern methods in many francophone West African countries remains low. Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Togo all have a challenging combination of low rates of contraceptive use and significant levels of unmet need for FP. Further, current FP use largely consists of short-acting and traditional methods, with long-acting methods (intrauterine devices [IUDs] and implants) representing a small portion of the method mix in each country. The limited method mixes in these four countries suggest that client choice may be restricted and that couples may not be using the method best suited to their reproductive intentions.

This project brief details the technical assistance from the RESPOND Project to the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) Member Associations (MAs) in these four countries to strengthen their provision of long-acting FP methods. Specifically, through the use of an Organizational Capacity Assessment, the MAs appraised key programming components, systems, and functions at the organizational level and developed an overview of their organizational strengths and weaknesses that will serve as a starting point for planning to improve their capacity to offer access to more FP methods. (March 2012)

We invite you to download the PDF (3.0MB). For more information about the RESPOND Project, please visit
http://www.respond-project.org/pages/index.php.