Tag Archives: informed choice

Behavioral change communication is critical for the success of voluntary and choice-based family planning programs

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Guest post by Banchiamlack Dessalegn, Ph.D., Senior Technical Advisor for Monitoring, Evaluation and Research, Family Health International 360 (FHI 360), Addis Ababa Ethiopia

Knowledge and awareness of available family planning (FP) methods, as well as of their benefits and side effects, is a prerequisite for informed decision making (Bongaarts et al., 2012). Behavior change communication (BCC) is a tool for increasing knowledge and awareness. In this way, BCC can be seen as critical to facilitating successful voluntary, choice-based FP.

FP options

The Government of Ethiopia aims to increase the modern contraceptive prevalence rate (mCPR) to 55% by 2020, as stated in Ethiopia’s new Health Sector Transformation Plan. To achieve this, the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) is putting emphasis on improving the FP method mix, including by increasing demand for and access to long-acting and permanent methods of FP (LA/PMs) without compromising informed and free choice. While target-setting at the national and subnational levels might lead to the erosion of choice-based FP services, the FMOH has given clear direction that services must be based on proper counseling and free choice. As a result of the concerted efforts and results-oriented policies of the FMOH, impressive achievements have been made in recent years, with the mCPR increasing from 28.6% in 2011 to 41.8% in 2014 and the total fertility rate dropping from 4.8 to 4.1 lifetime births per woman during the same period (CSA [Ethiopia] & ICF International, 2012; CSA [Ethiopia], 2014).

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Marie Stopes International and EngenderHealth lead endeavor to expand contraceptive choice

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by Sara Malakoff, Senior Program Associate, EngenderHealth

Female sterilization is the world’s most popular contraceptive method with more than 220 million users. Sterilization is convenient for women who desire to limit childbearing, as it requires no further visits to a health care provider. In addition, it does not have the side effects that contribute to the discontinuation of user dependent methods, such as hormonal contraception. However, access to both male and female sterilization varies significantly geographically, is limited in many parts of the world (particularly in rural areas), and has not increased at a pace comparable to that of the unmet need to limit childbearing.

In an attempt to address issues of full contraceptive choice and to ensure the availability of and access to a wide range of contraceptives, including permanent methods, Marie Stopes International (MSI) and EngenderHealth under the auspices of the Support for International Family Planning Organizations (SIFPO) project funded by USAID, convened a two-day technical symposium in Nairobi in March 2014 entitled Provision of Permanent Methods of Contraception in Low-Resource Settings. A dynamic group of over 40 participants from 27 organizations and 13 countries attended the event.

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Gender Norms and Power Inequities: Key Barriers to Realizing Sexual and Reproductive Rights

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Guest post by Christina Wegs, Senior Advisor for Global Policy and Advocacy, CARE

December 10th was International Human Rights Day. This day commemorates the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) by the UN General Assembly in 1948, which affirmed the rights of all people, everywhere and all the time. The Declaration, as well as similar international treaties and agreements, confirm the centrality and importance of protecting and fulfilling sexual and reproductive rights (SRR). Embraced within the concept of SRR is the right to reproductive self-determination; the right to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) information, education, and services; the right to the highest attainable standard of health; and the right to equality and non-discrimination.

Despite international recognition of the importance of SRR, sixty years on and twenty years after the International Conference on Population and Development, women and girls in every part of the world continue to face considerable barriers to realizing their SRR. In many places, unmarried women and adolescents are denied access to reproductive health information and services, many women are not able to exercise full, free, and informed contraceptive choice, and women continue to die from preventable complications of pregnancy and childbirth. Pervasive gender inequality limits women’s decision-making autonomy and undermines their health and well-being throughout their lives. Finally, many women—especially poor and socially marginalized women—continue to experience systemic discrimination in health care, which not only results in poor quality of care and poor health outcomes, but also acts as a powerful disincentive to women seeking care.

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Uganda Prioritizes Voluntary Family Planning and Charts Course for a Rights-Based Approach

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Blog post by Jan Kumar, EngenderHealth/RESPOND Project

The planets have aligned in Uganda over the past few weeks for a significant shift in the country’s national family planning (FP) program that sets it on a new and ground-breaking course. From July 28-30, 2014, the Ugandan Ministry of Health (MOH)—with support from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)—hosted an event titled “Accelerating social and economic transformation through universal access to voluntary family planning.” President Museveni used this opportunity to accelerate the government’s commitment to FP2020 and to voice his endorsement for FP as a means to improve maternal health, reduce poverty, and support social and economic development. The meeting paved the way for the promotion of equitable access to a wide range of quality FP services that ensure full, free, and informed choice, as well as the protection and fulfillment of human rights for all Ugandan women and couples who wish to space or limit their childbearing.

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The Leaking Bucket Phenomenon in Family Planning

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Guest post by Anrudh K. Jain, Ph.D., Distinguished Scholar, The Population Council

Family planning (FP) programs in developing countries have been experiencing a phenomenon that I like to call “the leaking bucket.” Let’s say that you place a bucket under an open tap and watch the water level rise, until you discover a hole in the bottom of the bucket. Water is now leaking out of the bucket. Filling the bucket will be easier once the hole is plugged. In the same way, meeting women’s desire to reduce unwanted fertility will become easier once FP programs pay more attention to contraceptive discontinuation.

Bucket
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Missing Links: Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in the Post-2015 Global Development Agenda

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On July 17, Katja Iversen, CEO of Women Deliver, published “Working Hard to Get the World We Want: Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights After 2015” on The Huffington Post’s Global Motherhood blog. In this post, Iversen reports on the work of the Open Working Group (OWG) for Sustainable Development Goals, which is comprised of representatives from 70 countries and tasked with the creation of a new global framework for development that they are set to present to the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon by the end of July. The influence of this report on the future of international development, sustainability, and human rights cannot be overstated.

The goals and targets it proposes—and the issues explicitly addressed—will be of utmost importance in the shaping of the post-2015 development agenda. Due to conservative push-back, Iversen decries, the current report language fails to include sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), as well as the health of young people despite the fact that “the majority of governments have identified [SRHR] as a priority to get the world on a sustainable path.”

The blog post discusses the vital role that voluntary family planning and ensuring rights and contraceptive choices for women and girls play in ensuring equal opportunity, economic growth, and the development and maintenance of healthy populations. Iversen urges readers to take action and suggests ways to become involved in supporting the push for inclusion of SRHR in the forthcoming global development framework. Read this important post and join EngenderHealth, Women Deliver, and other organizations and individuals in the effort to make SRHR a priority in the post-2015 global development agenda and a reality for all.

Can 223 million women be wrong? A reflection on the status of voluntary sterilization programs

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Guest post by Lynn Bakamjian

Tanzanian couple receiving family planning counselling (Photo credit: Sala Lewis)

Tanzanian couple receiving family planning counselling (Photo credit: Sala Lewis)

Today, as family planning (FP) programs are receiving renewed attention and resources as a result of FP2020, several important issues have risen to the top of the investment agenda. These include increasing access to quality long-acting reversible contraceptive (LARC) methods; task-shifting FP information and services to lower level health workers to address provider shortages; and scaling- up approaches that extend services, such as postpartum FP , mobile services, and increased engagement of the private sector. As programs strive to make more contraceptive choices available to reach more than 200 million women with an unmet need for FP, there is one topic that receives little attention—how to expand access, availability, acceptability and quality of permanent methods (PMs) (voluntary female sterilization and vasectomy). Continue reading →

Family Planning for All: The Importance of Contraceptive Access and Choice following Fistula Repair

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Guest Post by Carrie Ngongo (Project Manager, Fistula Care Plus)

People often assume that women who’ve undergone an obstetric fistula repair are not interested in using family planning (FP). After all, most lost a baby during the obstructed labor that led to their injury. However, recent studies (see here and here) indicate that fistula clients are often interested in using FP if they learn about available methods and services during their post-repair recovery period. When fistula surgeons and counselors make assumptions about women’s desires, they miss the opportunity to provide needed services and to offer reproductive choices to women who may have been disadvantaged and marginalized as a result of their injury.

Photo by R. Raj Kumar/EngenderHealth

Photo by R. Raj Kumar/EngenderHealth

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Keeping Complexity in a Human Rights–Based Approach to Family Planning: Is It Worth It?

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Submitted by Shannon Harris, on behalf of the team led by Futures Group and EngenderHealth that developed the Voluntary, Rights-Based Family Planning Framework

Human rights–based family planning (FP) programming—what does it mean? Where do you start to translate it into practice? How comprehensive do you need to be? It is easy to become daunted by a long list of inputs and activities, such as those listed in the voluntary, rights-based family planning framework developed by a team led by Futures Group and EngenderHealth. The recent 2020 Vision newsletter refers to the overwhelming nature of existing guidance documents for ensuring that FP programs are rights-based and offers a simplified starting point. But will simplification of a complex set of challenges lead to the transformation in FP programming that our field needs?

We welcome the dialogue started by Population Action International (PAI) about how to move forward to protect and fulfill human rights within FP programs. This conversation is needed; multiple voices and views add richness to the discussion. PAI suggests starting with three priorities: voluntarism, informed choice, and achieving a diverse method mix. Certainly, we have to start somewhere, and these three elements are essential to rights-based FP— programs must be vigilant in preventing instances of coercion and in ensuring full, free, and informed contraceptive choice.

However, these program elements are not sufficient to ensure equitable access to services for all nor to ensure that the services are of high quality. They also do not address community factors that impede access to and use of FP. And they do not address the issue of accountability. These are critical considerations for reaching and fulfilling the human rights of the 220 million women with an unmet need for FP.

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Expanding Choice through the Introduction and Scale-Up of the Standard Days Method® in India

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Guest post by Lauren VanEnk, Program Officer, Institute for Reproductive Health at Georgetown University (IRH)

IRH Georgetown picture

Photo credit: Institute for Reproductive Health (IRH) at Georgetown University

For decades, India’s national family planning (FP) program has emphasized female sterilization, resulting in limited contraceptive method options for those with an unmet need for FP, especially for spacing pregnancies. However, following the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), which recommended high-quality services and a range of methods, the Government of India adopted a national population policy in 2000 that shifted its FP program’s focus from achieving target-driven demographic goals to ensuring reproductive health and rights, including voluntary and informed choice.

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