Innovation Brief: Insights from Model Providers in Cote d’Ivoire to Strengthen Voluntary Family Planning Service Delivery

“Model providers” are health workers who deliver high quality services, such as voluntary family planning (FP), despite societal and systemic obstacles. Such high-performing service providers can be identified through supervisor evaluation and confirmed through an assessment of client experience (e.g., mystery client surveys).

The insights and examples of model providers can be used to support and improve provider performance across the workforce, ultimately increasing access to voluntary FP. The aim of this brief is to describe the characteristics of model providers and how they respond to the barriers they face, as identified in the Transform/PHARE Côte d’Ivoire study.

The brief includes recommendations to foster high performance across the FP workforce.

Source: Population Services International

Date of Publication: March 1, 2021

SIMILIAR RESOURCES

Tools

Examples

Innovation Brief: Leveraging Technology to Develop and Test Family Planning Mass Media Campaigns in Niger and Cote D’Ivoire

The use of technology for Family Planning (FP) mass media provides an opportunity to reach a large number of people with appropriate FP information, often at national scale, and allows messages to be adjusted and improved quickly based on real-time feedback.

Using technology for developing and testing FP mass media campaigns also provides users with a safe and anonymous space to interact when they are free. This is a particularly important factor in contexts where FP is a taboo subject, especially among certain populations.

The aim of this brief is to present an overview of two uses of technology (interactive voice response (IVR) and Facebook) for FP mass media campaigns in Niger and Côte d’Ivoire (CDI), the challenges and benefits of using technology, and considerations for future use.

Source: Population Services International

Date of Publication: March 1, 2021

Innovation Brief: Model Provider Research Approach to Identify Barriers and Facilitators to High Quality Family Planning Services

In Côte d’Ivoire, Transform/PHARE developed and tested an intervention that captured insights from model Family Planning (FP) providers to inform recommendations to the Ministry of Health (MOH), professional associations, and FP implementing partners for replicating and facilitating the conditions for provider excellence.

This process departed from standard approaches to performance improvement because it focused on providers’ strengths rather than weaknesses and providers’ own perspectives. PHARE recommends this approach as one component of quality improvement, not as a replacement for ongoing supportive supervision.

The aim of this brief is to describe the process PHARE used to identify characteristics and needs of model providers and convert those insights into guidance for fostering high performance across the FP workforce. Implementers can follow the steps outlined in this brief to replicate the process in other FP service delivery settings.

Source: Population Services International

Date of Publication: March 1, 2021

Innovation Brief: A Total Market Approach for Voluntary Family Planning Programming that Includes Social and Behavior Change Communication

Total Market Approach (TMA) is a process used to improve the performance of a market in an equitable and sustainable manner, with the goal of achieving universal coverage of products and services.

Using TMA for FP programming involves making the most efficient use of existing resources and delivery points in the health system to generate demand for voluntary FP and ensuring that all consumers can access the FP method of their choice, regardless of their income level.

This brief, available in English and French, is intended for managers, including government stewards, of voluntary FP programming. It provides a guide for using the TMA methodology, including conducting a landscaping of social and behavior change communications (SBCC) in the FP market. It should be noted that SBCC is often overlooked or downplayed in FP market analysis. Its inclusion in the TMA analysis in Cote d’Ivoire yielded a comprehensive picture of the FP market, which in turn, informed subsequent programming to support improvements in the FP market to meet consumers’ needs.

Source: Population Services International

Date of Publication: March 1, 2021

Innovations Lab – Burkinabe Men’s Engagement in Family Planning

This summary served as pre-reading for the Innovations Lab workshop conducted in Ouagadougou in October 2017. It provides an overview of Family Planning with special emphasis on the role of men in Burkina Faso.

Source: PSI

Date of Publication: March 1, 2021

Innovations Lab – Final report

This final report documents the Innovations Lab workshop along with prototyping of intervention targeting men in Kaya, Burkina Faso.

The Innovations Lab included NGOs and non traditional actors participating in a workshop where innovative ideas to reach mean were discussed and analyzed. A ‘winner idea’ was selected to be prototyped by a consortium of local NGOs, consisting of training men to talk to their adolescents sons about sexuality and contraception.

Source: Population Services International

Date of Publication: March 1, 2021

Innovations Lab – Pere Burkinbila Implementation Manual

The Pere Burkinbila taught fathers how to educate their sons on reproductive health and also challenge male-oriented social norms and practices.

Fathers’ clubs were organized and participants trained on RH, gender, communication and contraception. House visits helped support the fathers in the process, as did the clubs, where fathers share their experiences and their concerns. The implementation manual is complemented by three flip-charts.

Source: PSI

Date of Publication: March 1, 2021

Sarari Project, Niger

This webpage introduces the Sarari project, implemented in Niger under Transform/PHARE.

Sarari is a program piloted in the Zinder region of Niger, with the objective of promoting a supportive environment for birth spacing and family planning, by mobilizing the support of religious leaders, youth leaders, and other influential figures in the community.

Source: PSI

Date of Publication: March 1, 2021

Innovation Brief: Breaking Down Barriers to Family Planning Access by Engaging Agents of Change

Social and behavior change (SBC) approaches target multiple levels of this ecosystem and are thus a pivotal part of family planning (FP) programming – impacting the interpersonal relationships, community structures, and social norms that guide individual behavior. Evidence based SBC interventions can increase knowledge of FP, shift attitudes and norms, and influence behaviors around contraceptive use.

One component of Transform/PHARE was to provide information and encourage dialogue with key gatekeepers who play a role in influencing individual FP decision making. This technical brief provides country examples, best practices, and lessons for engaging key secondary audiences and influencing social norms toward the broader aim of increasing knowledge and informed demand for voluntary FP.

This brief is applicable to other implementing organizations, donors, and ministries of health that are implementing SBC programs for FP.

Last modified: March 1, 2021

Language: English, French

Innovation Brief: Engaging Influencers and Non-Traditional Actors in Participatory Processes for Family Planning Program Design

This Process Brief is intended for program implementers who would like to use a participatory approach to inform program design in family planning (FP) and reproductive health (RH).

This brief pulls from experiences and lessons learned during the USAID-funded Transform/PHARE project. Involvement of target audiences and key influencers, in particular, has emerged as a critical area of learning. The brief reflects on PHARE’s engagement of influencers for program design and offers lessons and recommendations for a successful and meaningful participatory process for future FP programming.

English version

French version

Last modified: March 1, 2021

Language: English, French