Family Planning

Gaps in the midwifery tutors’ knowledge on comprehensive abortion care (CAC) have resulted in most midwives in Ghana not knowing the legal indications under which safe abortion care can be provided, and lacking the skills and competencies for CAC services. The aim of this study is to assess the capacity and willingness of midwifery tutors to teach contraception, post abortion care and legal termination in Ghana. [from abstract]

In 2008, Malawi piloted the distribution of depo-medroxy progesterone acetate (DMPA), an injectable contraceptive, to the community by Health Surveillance Assistants. This report presents lessons learned during the initial implementation, from gaining stakeholder buy-in to curriculum development, and the initial three months after the training and implementation roll-out. [from abstract]

In direct response to the country’s human resources for health needs, the Capacity Project helped to develop the capacity of the district hospital clinical workforce to expand access to a full range of quality family planning methods through a pilot vasectomy in-service training program for physicians and nurses at two district hospitals. [adapted from introduction]

This report presents research findings on the potential for making contraceptives, and in particular injectable contraceptives, widely available through using a community-based distribution approach which would expand the cadre of providers authorized to provide contraceptives to include health surveillance assistants and community-based distribution agents. [adapted from summary]

Because of increased demand for injectable contraception coupled with an overburdened clinical health system, countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, have recently expanded the use of non-clinic based approaches in providing this method. In this first review of the available evidence of these efforts, this consultation concluded that there is sufficient evidence to support expansion of community-based health workers providing progestin-only injectable contraceptives, especially DMPA. [from author]

Many developing countries face strains in meeting the demands for provision of health services because of limited medical personnel. This has led to renewed interest in task sharing, also known as task shifting. A key feature of task sharing is that those with less medical or paramedical training can provide some of the same services with the same quality as those with more training. [from author]

The Capacity Project offered technical support to Rwanda’s Ministry of Health to develop the capacity of the district hospital clinical workforce in order to expand client access to a full range of quality FP methods. These included long-acting and permanent methods and vasectomy in particular. [from author]

This two-year study to assessed the usefulness and effectiveness of using paraprofessionals in educating and providing emergency contraceptive pill services to potential users. [from summary]

This study was undertaken primarily to understand what effect the efforts to integrate family planning and VCT services in health facilities had on health care providers’ work and service delivery practices in two regions of Ethiopia. [from summary]

This study tested the feasibility, acceptability, and cost of two models for integrating HIV prevention services, including counseling and testing, within established family planning programs, and evaluated their quality against the standard practice. [from author]

This report is the result of a rapid assessment conducted to better understand the current and potential market for family planning products and services in the private health sector in Senegal, as well as to provide recommendations to strengthen the private health sector. [adapted from executive summary]

This video resource shows how midwives and community volunteers are helping more Cambodian women to increase the time between births, thereby contributing to healthier pregnancies, infants and families as well as to a better chance of escaping poverty. [adapted from synopsis]

This study focused on factors associated with the readiness of Kenyan health facilities to provide quality and appropriate care to family planning clientele; the degree to which health care providers foster informed selection of an appropriate contraceptive method; and the extent to which clients perceive services to be of high quality. [from abstract]

To build instructors’ capacity and address the knowledge gaps, the Capacity Project partnered with East, Central and Southern Africa Health Community and Africa’s Health in 2010 to deliver a week-long workshop on Contemporary Issues in Family Planning for midwifery tutors in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. [from author]

Long-Acting Family Planning (LAFP) methods, provide uninterrupted protection to women for 3 to 12 years. But they must be inserted by trained providers in a safe clinical environment. With limited facilities and few providers, widespread implementation of LAFP in Ethiopia requires training of significant numbers of rural providers and developing properly equipped facilities for implant and IUCD insertions. This document describes a training program for family planning. [from author]

This brief synthesizes best practices in achieving reproductive health and family planning (RH/FP) goals for the Europe and Eurasia region, and highlights the role of the private sector in meeting these goals. [from author]

This presentation from the AIDS 2008 Conference details the outcome of a study in Kenya concerning the integration of HIV counselling and testing into family practice services, as well as the integration of HIV and reproductive health services.


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The toolkit was developed to facilitate improved access to appropriate and effective contraception for clients with HIV, especially through the strategic integration of family planning with HIV prevention, care, and treatment services.

This document summarizes a project to design, implement and compare two models of integrating CT for HIV within FP services in 23 health facilities in Kenya in terms of their feasibility, acceptability, cost and effect on the voluntary use of CT, as well as the quality of FP services. [adapted from summary]

This issue offers an overview of the core factors contributing to the success of family planning programs. Family planning professionals around the world helped to identify these 10 crucial program elements. This report highlights program experiences, best practices, and evidence-based guidance derived from nearly six decades of experience in international family planning. [adapted from author]

Sections of the report that address HRH include “High-Performing Staff” (p. 16).

JHPIEGO has been focused on improving the quality and availability of reproductive health and family planning services for slum residents, both by targeting the facility-based health care providers and the community members who access these services. This document outlines several lessons that have been learned from this experience. [adapted from author]

In developing countries, postabortion care (PAC) programs are frequently available only in urban or regional health facilities, placing rural women at greater risk for mortality and morbidity from complications because they lack access to services. This technical brief evaluates efforts to decentralize PAC activities in Senegal and Tanzania that show PAC can be safely and successfully decentralized with services capably provided by mid-level personnel in health centers, dispensaries, and some health posts when providers are trained and supervised and equipment and supplies are available. [adap

This Voices discusses the experiences of nurse hired through the Emergency Hiring Plan in Kenya in providing family planning services, and the importance of confidentiality in the successful provision of these services.

This guide is a resource for trainers in developing in-service training for facility-based healthcare providers and community health workers (CHWs) who already have some basic experience with and understanding of RH/FP. This is not a training manual, but a reference guide which can be used and adapted by trainers based on whether or not trainees are facility-based or community-based. [from author]

This paper examines Tanzanian service providers’ perceptions of contraceptives to shed light on questions of local level dissemination of population knowledge and shaping of identities. The findings suggest that the family planning program serves in a process of differentiation between two groups of local women: the service providers and their clients. [adapted from abstract]

The Knowledge Improvement Tool (KIT) was created to allow family planning supervisors to quickly identify gaps in knowledge of Standard Days Method (SDM) providers, allowing them to provide targeted, effective support during routine supervisory visits. This study was designed to compare the effectiveness and the cost benefit of KIT to other methods of reinforcing SDM provider knowledge. [adapted from author]

This document evaluates the expected change in the reproductive preferences of women due to the presence of volunteers and community health workers providing health service delivery in the communities through the Community Health and Family Planning project. In the communities where there is intervention, women seem to show that their fertility preferences are generally shifting towards small family sizes although the fertility levels are still high. [adapted from author]

Produced in collaboration with Save the Children USA, this step-by-step guide explains how to introduce injectable contraceptives

This report documents the assessment of a family planning training program for providers to enable them to offer family planning counseling and methods, and make referrals where needed as part of antiretroviral therapy services in Ghana. [from summary]

This brief is a best practice model for improving the quality and accessibility of family planning and HIV services in rural communities in Zimbabwe. [from author]