These counseling cards were developed as part of a wider program to use advanced audience segmentation (AAS) techniques in order to properly direct family planning  (FP) messages to specific audiences in Niger. 

After the initial AAS research was carried out, and the team learned more about the contraceptive needs of spedific audiences of men and women, stakeholders wanted to see how this information could be used to improve family planning counseling sessions.

In 2014-2015, the Hewlett Foundation, Nigerien Ministry of Health, and Camber Collective came together with Pathfinder International’s Animas Sutura project to use the Nigerien segmentation results to develop and pilot a series of rapid assessment tools for community health workers who conduct household visits in health centers in Maradi and Tillabéri, Niger. These counseling cards, a flipbook, a questionnaire, and counseling cards were part of this toolkit.

The counseling cards assist the health worker to understand each specific audience segment in more depth before counseling about family planning.