Can DMPA-SC Self-injection Bridge a Family Planning Access Gap in Humanitarian Settings?

Humanitarian crises and disease outbreaks exacerbate the barriers that women face when seeking reproductive health services. They also highlight a timeless truth: women must be able to manage their own sexual and reproductive health—especially in a crisis when health systems are at their weakest.

On November 17, 2021, the PATH-JSI DMPA-SC Access Collaborative hosted this webinar on making self-care interventions available, including DMPA-SC self-injection, in humanitarian settings. Through this virtual discussion, we addressed key challenges in humanitarian settings that need to be addressed in order to leverage the potential of self-injection as an option to ease access to family planning in the context of a full method mix.

Discussion highlights included:

• Programmatic or regulatory actions that need to be implemented
• Country-specific cultural barriers affecting demand generation in humanitarian settings
• Supply systems and processes in humanitarian settings compared to national systems
• Collaboration and data sharing between agencies

This discussion was moderated by George Barigye, Regional Technical Advisor, DMPA-SC Access Collaborative, PATH, Uganda. The keynote introduction was given by Dr. Adewole Adefalu, Country Coordinator, DMPA-SC Access Collaborative, JSI, Nigeria.

Featured panelists:

• Lilian Ndinda, Maternal and Child Health Coordinator, International Rescue Committee, South Sudan
• Dr. Arsenia Nhancale, Program Analyst, Family Planning and HIV, United Nations Population Fund, Mozambique
• Dr. Ronald Nyakoojo, Assistant Public Health Officer, Reproductive Health/HIV, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Uganda
• Roselline Achola, National Programme Analyst, Family Planning, United Nations Population Fund, Uganda

This discussion encouraged all stakeholders—program implementers, researchers, government officials, health providers, and members of civil society—to consider humanitarian sector perspectives when advocating for policies that advance self-care behaviors and commodities essential to improving health outcomes in crisis settings.