Approaches to Mobile Outreach Services for Family Planning: A Descriptive Inquiry in Malawi, Nepal, and Tanzania
Report No. 13, August 2013
Mobile outreach services for family planning are widely used in the global south to reach underserved, hard-to-reach populations, yet they have been sparsely documented in recent years. Between 2010 and 2012, The RESPOND Project conducted a study of mobile outreach services in Malawi, Nepal, and Tanzania, countries with long-established and diverse mobile outreach programs implemented by both the public and nongovernmental sectors.
Observations at 20 facilities and interviews with more than 150 providers, clients, managers, and policymakers led the researchers to suggest the following key programmatic considerations involving mobile services:
- When working in less-than-ideal circumstances, program managers and staff must adapt to ensure quality of care.
- Greater attention must be paid to ensuring the availability of contraceptives, medical equipment, instruments, and expendable supplies for mobile outreach services.
- Attention to staff planning and innovations in staffing for mobile outreach could improve access to family planning (especially to long-acting and permanent methods).
- Supervision is an important component of mobile outreach and should be conducted at regular intervals to ensure quality.
- Mobile services offer opportunities for on-the-job training, coaching, and skills improvement for new staff and for those needing refresher training.
- Demand creation is an effective way to reach underserved populations, but would benefit from greater planning and coordination.
- Community health workers and/or volunteers play a crucial role in demand creation and community mobilization for mobile outreach.
- Given the importance of public-private partnerships, district health officials should coordinate all public- and private-sector programs offering mobile services in a district.
- Improvements are needed in data collection and analysis, including disaggregation of data by mode of service delivery.
- Governments should ensure that mobile outreach services are free of charge to clients.
The investigators also offer a series of research-related questions related to mobile services that merit additional consideration if such services are to achieve their potential for meeting the needs of underserved populations in developing countries, particularly in hard-to-reach rural areas.
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