NEW RESOURCE - LA/PMs: A Smart FP/RH Program Investment
The RESPOND Project is pleased to announce the launch of a new eLearning course:
LA/PMs: A Smart FP/RH Program Investment.
Ensuring access to information about and affordable quality services for a wide range of contraceptive methods within family planning (FP) and reproductive health (RH) programs is vital to enabling women and men to achieve their reproductive intentions, whether they choose to delay a first pregnancy, space pregnancies, or limit further childbearing. Long-acting and permanent methods (LA/PMs)-the intrauterine device (IUD), the hormonal implant, female sterilization, and vasectomy-have a central role to play in meeting the needs of individuals and couples safely, conveniently, and effectively.
This eLearning course is designed to provide learners with a solid understanding of LA/PMs, the rationale for investing the necessary resources to make these methods more widely available in the contraceptive method mix of national FP/RH programs, and the benefits they can provide to both clients and health systems. The course presents a combination of technical information, leadership and training strategies, and holistic programming experiences from the field, to enable learners to understand:
- Why LA/PMs are vital to address unmet need (i.e., the difference between women's expressed reproductive intentions and their method use)
- How the gap between intentions and practice could be closed by increasing people's awareness of LA/PMs, correcting misinformation about them, and increasing their availability
This evidence-based resource complements the catalogue of courses offered in the Family Planning/Reproductive Health and Maternal Health Certificate Programs of the Global Health eLearning Center at the U.S. Agency for International Development's Bureau of Global Health. We encourage you to include this course as part of your continuing education and as a stimulus to your thinking on how to address FP/RH challenges in the field.