Briefs
- Project Brief #1
Promoting Hormonal Implants within a Range of Long-Acting and Permanent Methods: The Tanzania Experience (PDF, 4MB) May 2010
One of the challenges to increasing the availability of implants has been ensuring sufficient commodities to meet demand-an issue that many family planning programs face. This brief describes EngenderHealth's approach for supporting the Tanzanian Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MOHSW) in introducing and expanding access to long-acting and permanent methods of contraception (LA/PMs), focusing specifically on challenges and lessons learned related to hormonal implants.
- Project Brief #2
Preventing Postpartum Hemorrhage: Community-Based Distribution of Misoprostol in Tangail District, Bangladesh (PDF, 3MB) May 2010
Deaths related to postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) present a major challenge to health systems, particularly in rural areas of Bangladesh, where infrastructure is poor and health facilities often lack skilled staff, drugs, and equipment. Misoprostol is a proven uterotonic drug that is increasingly used in clinical and home delivery settings to prevent and manage PPH. This project brief discusses the implementation of a pilot project in the Tangail District of Bangladesh to determine the effectiveness of using government and nongovernmental field workers at the community level to distribute misoprostol tablets and ensure that women take the drug immediately postpartum. In addition to the programmatic intervention strategies, it looks at health outcomes, women's views and experiences, as well as lessons learned and recommendations for moving forward.
- Project Brief #3
Factors Affecting Acceptance of Vasectomy in Uttar Pradesh: Insights from Community-Based, Participatory Qualitative Research (PDF, 3MB) May 2011
RESPOND is providing technical assistance to the Government of Uttar Pradesh to expand awareness of, acceptance of, and access to no-scalpel vasectomy (NSV) services. This project brief describes a qualitative anthropological approach used to determine barriers to NSV use, people's perceptions about NSV and family planning, and how these affect decision making on whether to use this permanent method. The rich, social commentary resulting from this work offers crucial insights for understanding the reasons for the low prevalence of vasectomy in Uttar Pradesh. The recommendations are being used to expand awareness about, acceptance of, and access to NSV services in the future.
- Project Brief #4
Kenyan Family Planning Providers Leverage Local Resources to Train Their Peers on Long-Acting and Permanent Methods (PDF, 3MB) September 2011
This project brief describes an innovative approach designed to quickly and sustainably increase the number of providers prepared to offer LA/PMs, while fostering ownership and sustainability by leveraging local resources for training. With technical assistance from RESPOND, the Kenyan Ministry of Health's Division of Reproductive Health (DRH) piloted the approach in the Nyanza and Rift Valley provinces, where unmet need for family planning is most acute. Over a 12-month period, RESPOND and the DRH collaborated to create a national-level curriculum for LA/PM service delivery, implement cascade training and on-the-job training of family planning providers, and conduct follow-up supervision visits. As a result of these efforts, the DRH grew its corps of LA/PM trainers and built the capacity of 156 providers to offer LA/PMs. Clients can now avail themselves of a broader range of FP methods at local facilities, many of which had not offered long-acting methods previously.
- Project Brief #5
Building the Capacity of IPPF Affiliates in West Africa: Use of a New Tool for Program Assessment March 2012
As part of its support to strengthen the provision of long-acting methods of family planning in West Africa, the RESPOND Project is providing technical assistance over two years to the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) Member Associations (MAs) in these four countries. This project brief looks at the use of a Capacity Assessment Tool designed to provide a self-appraisal of an MA's capacity to improve access to and use of long-acting methods in the context of a state-of-the-art family planning program.
English (PDF, 3MB) and French (PDF, 3MB)
- Project Brief #6
Making Family Planning Accessible, and Affordable: The Experience of Malawi (PDF, 3.4MB) April 2012
Malawi has made notable strides in the provision and use of family planning (FP) services and methods. In addition to a dramatic increase in the use of modern contraceptive methods, from 28% in 2004 to 42% in 2010, Malawi has also seen a sustained use of injectable contraceptives and of long-acting and permanent methods (LA/PMs) of contraception. This brief synthesizes the findings from a review of Malawi's family planning (FP) program to better understand the factors that underpin its recent successes, highlighting key achievements, relaying the story of behind the FP program's success, and looking to the future for sustaining and building on its remarkable promise.
- Project Brief #7
Acceptability of Sino-Implant (II) in Bangladesh: Six-Month Findings from a Prospective Study (PDF, 3MB) July 2012
Bangladeshi women's interest in long-acting family planning methods, and in hormonal implants in particular, appears to have risen in recent years. National service statistics show a dramatic jump in monthly implant insertions to about 44,000, well over the 11,000 per month average of the past five years. This sudden increase suggests that latent demand for the implant is now being met because the device has become more widely available. Currently, one type of implant (Implanon®) is available in Bangladesh, and there is interest in adding Sino-implant (II). To this end, the RESPOND Project and Mayer Hashi were asked by Bangladesh's Directorate General of Family Planning of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to conduct an acceptability trial of Sino-implant (II), to inform the decision on whether to introduce Sino-implant (II) into the national family planning program and to provide lessons for scale-up. As of the midpoint of the one-year study, users of Sino-implant (II) appear to have found it acceptable, with relatively few discontinuing its use and most users reporting their general satisfaction with the method. However, the occurrence of a handful of infection-related side effects and some users' reports of concerns over bleeding-related side effects emphasize the importance of implementing a whole-site training approach at facilities providing the implant.
- Project Brief #8
Achieving Positive Policy Changes for Family Planning in Bangladesh (PDF, 3MB) September 2012
Contraceptive prevalence in Bangladesh has increased nearly eight-fold over the past 30 years, from just 8% in 1975 to 61% in 2011, and the total fertility rate has fallen from 6.3 to 2.3 lifetime births per woman. Yet policy barriers and outdated medical eligibility criteria still sometimes impede clients' access to the method of their choice-particularly long-acting and permanent methods (LA/PMs), which represent only about 13% of all family planning use there. This project brief looks at the efforts of the RESPOND/Mayer Hashi project to improve the policy environment around LA/PM use, through a careful, structured process that relied heavily on consultation with local partners about critical obstacles in the field.
- Project Brief #9
Adapting an Employer-Based Approach to Support Increase Access to and Use of LA/PMs January 2013
English (PDF, 3.5MB) and French (PDF, 3.4MB)
- Project Brief #10
Views on Family Planning and Long-Acting and Permanent Methods: Insights from Nigeria (PDF, 3.4MB) February 2013
- Project Brief #11
Views on Family Planning and Long-Acting and Permanent Methods: Insights from Malawi (PDF, 3.2MB) February 2013
- Project Brief #12
Views on Family Planning and Long-Acting and Permanent Methods: Insights from Cambodia (PDF, 3.2MB) February 2013
- Project Brief #13
Communities Take Action in Kenya: Strengthening Postabortion Care March 2013
English (PDF, 3.3MB) and French (PDF, 3.4MB)
- Project Brief #14
Using a Quality Improvement Approach to Improve Contraceptive Security in Tanzania (PDF, 3.1MB) May 2013
- Project Brief #15
Expanding Contraceptive Choice in West Africa: Building the Capacity of Local Nongovernmental Organizations to Program Holistically June 2013
English (PDF, 3MB) and French (PDF, 3MB)
- Project Brief #16
Strengthening National Family Planning Information Systems through Data Quality Assessment: Lessons from Bangladesh (PDF, 3MB) September 2013
- Project Brief #17
Introducing Postpartum Family Planning in Maternal Health Services in Low-Performing Areas of Bangladesh (PDF, 3MB) September 2013
- Project Brief #18
Reaching Young Married Couples in Bangladesh: An Underserved Population for Long-Acting Methods of Contraception (PDF, 3MB) September 2013
- Project Brief #19
Breaking Down Barriers to Contraceptive Choice in the Public Health Sector in Burkina Faso and Togo (PDF, 3.3MB) December 2013
- Project Brief #20
Improving and Sustaining Contraceptive Security in Tanzania (PDF, 3MB) June 2014
- Project Brief #21
The Female Sterilization Standardization Plus Initiative: Building Capacity for Providing Minilaparotomy in Four Countries (PDF, 3.2MB) July 2014
- Project Brief #22
Reality Check Experiences: Use of a Program Planning and Advocacy Tool for Family Planning Initiatives (PDF, 3MB) July 2014
- Project Brief #23
Prevention of and Response to Gender-Based Violence in Two Provinces of Burundi August 2014
English (PDF, 3.3MB) and French (PDF, 3.4MB)
- Project Brief #24
Improving Clients’ Access to Long-Acting Methods: Enhancing the Capacity of IPPF Member Associations in West Africa (PDF, 3.2MB) August 2014
- Project Brief #25
Increasing Male Engagement in HIV Prevention in Côte d’Ivoire (PDF, 3.3MB) August 2014
- Project Brief #26
Expanding Access to Modern Contraception Using Advocacy to Spur Action: RESPOND’s Experience in Malawi (PDF, 3.2MB) August 2014
- Project Brief #27
Holistic Approach Enhances Family Planning Programs: RESPOND’s Experience with the SEED Programming Model (PDF, 3.1MB) August 2014
Technical Briefs
- Technical Brief #1
Hormonal Implants: Service Delivery Considerations for an Improved and Increasingly Popular Method (PDF, 2.8KB) March 2010
Hormonal implants are a highly effective, very safe, and reversible form of progestin-only contraception that is quickly and easily provided by a trained provider in a few minutes via a minor surgical procedure. Nearly all women can use this long-acting method, at any stage in their reproductive life. This Technical Brief provides an overview of the characteristics of this method, as well as programmatic considerations for service delivery, including client eligibility, provider cadres' ability to provide implants, service quality, and access, to name a few.
- Technical Brief #2
Hormonal Implant Services: Delivering a Highly Effective Contraceptive Method Now Available at Reduced Cost September 2013
English (PDF, 2.9MB) and French (PDF, 3MB)