Costed implementation plans play an important role in transforming family planning commitments into concrete programs and policies by informing budget creation and management as well as funding allocations and tracking. As part of introduction and scale-up planning across countries, the DMPA-SC Access Collaborative has worked with ministries of health and partners to create costed implementation plans for DMPA-SC specifically and map commitments or available budgets against costed plans to understand funding gaps. This brief describes the Access Collaborative’s costed implementation plan approach as well as costing tools available to enable countries to estimate their own plan’s requirements and potential funding gaps. For more information or assistance, please visit the Access Collaborative technical assistance page or contact FPoptions@path.org.

Using eLearning to train health workers on family planning counseling can be an effective training approach, particularly when carefully planned and coordinated to maximize the benefits. On August 26, 2021, the DMPA-SC Access Collaborative hosted this webinar on eLearning for health workers learning to counsel clients on DMPA-SC including self-injection in Senegal and Uganda. During 2019-2020, this approach was launched and evaluated in four regions of Senegal and four districts in Uganda.

The findings and recommendations from the experiences in Senegal and Uganda may offer lessons for other countries wishing to implement digital learning approaches. The webinar presenters raised important considerations about stakeholder coordination, internet and technology access, eLearning platforms, establishing training targets, training content, and the important role of post-training supervision.

Data has the power to convey the lived experiences of women and adolescents, highlighting the importance and potential of expanding choices to reduce unmet need for contraception. This monitoring, learning, and evaluation (MLE) toolkit features three tools for dynamic decision-making: A data visualization principles guide, an Excel dashboard how-to guide, and a data use and indicators guide. These are primers on how to create dynamic and visually compelling self-injection program data displays (e.g., dashboards, presentations) that facilitate comprehension and use of self-injection data for family planning program decision-making. While the MLE toolkit was developed with self-injection in mind, many of the principles could be applied to data visualization needs across family planning programs and methods. For more information about using the toolkit, visit Excelerate your self-injection program data: An Excel skill-building workshop series.

We want to hear from you! By completing this short survey, you can help us ensure the tools are meeting the needs of key stakeholders during new product introduction and scale-up. Please contact FPoptions@path.org with any questions or request for assistance.

Supportive supervision plays a critical role to ensure high-performing health workers have the appropriate knowledge, skills, and motivation in order to deliver quality family planning (FP) services and informed choice counseling. This package includes three supportive supervision tools that can be used by regional or district health teams when conducting supervision visits at health facilities that offer FP services:

1. Supportive supervision checklist to assess provision of family planning counseling
2. Observation checklist to assess health workers counseling clients on DMPA-SC self-injection
3. Remote supervision of family planning providers (includes family planning and self-injection)

Tools #1 and #2 can be used together or separately, depending on whether or not the supervision visits include follow-up with providers recently trained to counsel clients on DMPA-SC self-injection.

Tool #3 is intended for use in situations where in-person supervision is not possible; the supervision exercise can be conducted through phone or video. This tool includes guidance and instructions for supervisors who plan to conduct supervision remotely.

The tools are intended to serve as guides and can be adapted for specific settings as needed. For more information, contact FPoptions@path.org.

This webinar hosted by the DMPA-SC Access Collaborative Learning and Action Networks (LAN) on July 21, 2021 highlighted important considerations for private pharmacies in data collection and reporting on self-care products such as DMPA-SC self-injection. Presenters shared their experiences and lessons from introducing DMPA-SC self-injection through private delivery channels in their respective countries.

Highlights included:

• The specific types of self-injection data collected across countries.
• Best practices for engaging and motivating private sector pharmacies and drug shops to provide data to the public sector.
• Tools used by pharmacies to collect self-injection data.

This virtual discussion encouraged all stakeholders—program implementers, researchers, government officials, health providers, and civil society members—to consider private sector perspectives on data collection and reporting practices, highlighting the importance of good private sector data to inform government policies and strategies for monitoring, regulating health products, and procurement.

Over the past two years, a number of implementing partners have leveraged the Catalytic Opportunity Fund (COF) to support the scale-up of DMPA-SC in focal countries. The COF is a rapid funding mechanism administered by Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) and managed by the DMPA-SC Operations Group, a group that responds to operational and service delivery issues in DMPA-SC and self-injection introduction and scale-up. The fund aims to support short-term DMPA-SC scale-up activities that unlock or generate additional resources. COF grantees carry out a diverse range of activities with short-term, small grants that make significant contributions to the national introduction and scale-up of DMPA-SC in their countries.

During this DMPA-SC Learning and Action Network (LAN) knowledge-sharing webinar held on May 19, 2021, successful COF grantees representing the Society for Family Health, Pathfinder International, Marie Stopes, and Jhpiego shared about the fund’s impact on their work and key lessons learned. The virtual discussion encouraged all stakeholders—program implementers, researchers, government officials, health providers, and members of civil society—to consider applicable strategies and mechanisms for efficient, sustainable, and scalable product introduction.

For more information, please contact the Access Collaborative LAN at dmpa-sc-lan@path.org or the CHAI COF at COF@clintonhealthaccess.org.

The DMPA-SC Access Collaborative hosted this April 21, 2021 webinar highlighting lessons learned to date through four years of data-driven technical assistance and coordination to ensure that women have increased access to self-injection as a contraceptive option, delivered through informed choice programming. The discussion focused on key topics for the introduction and scale-up of self-injection—and self-care interventions more broadly—at the country level including:

• Policy and advocacy for new product introduction.
• How to coordinate scale-up of a new product.
• Using data to inform program introduction and scale-up.
• Effective innovations and adaptations in provider training.

This discussion was moderated by Monica Mutesa, Zambia Country Coordinator, DMPA-SC Access Collaborative, PATH. Speakers included:

• Caitlin Corneliess, Project Director, DMPA-SC Access Collaborative, PATH
• Adewole Adefalu, Nigeria Country Coordinator, DMPA-SC Access Collaborative, JSI
• Allen Namagembe, Uganda Deputy Director, DMPA-SC Access Collaborative, PATH
• Avotiana Rakotomanga, Madagascar Country Coordinator, DMPA-SC Access Collaborative, JSI
• Alain Kabore, Regional Technical Advisor, DMPA-SC Access Collaborative, PATH

For more information, please contact FPoptions@path.org.

The Family Planning Financing Roadmap is a resource for USAID Mission staff and others working on family planning issues in developing countries. The website is designed to support sustainable family planning approaches for a wide range of users, from those who have very limited knowledge of health financing concepts to those who have some knowledge or experience and are looking to develop a deeper understanding of specific issues. The website has three main sections: learning materials, an interactive roadmap, and a community of practice.

The Track20 Project, implemented by Avenir Health, monitors progress towards achieving the goals of the global FP2020 initiative, adding an additional 120 million modern method users between 2012 and 2020 in the world’s 69 poorest countries. Track20 works directly with governments in participating FP2020 countries to collect, analyze and use data to monitor progress annually in family planning and to actively use data to improve family planning strategies and plans. Track20 activities and efforts are focused on countries that chose to make a commitment to the FP2020 global initiative, referred to as Track20 Focus Countries. The remaining FP2020 countries, referred to as Additional Track20 Countries, will also receive some technical support.

PMA generates frequent, high-quality surveys monitoring key health indicators in nine countries in Africa and Asia. Data is available open-source for research, program planning, and policy-making. PMA family planning briefs provide a snapshot of select indicators through charts, graphs and tables. Key indicators for family planning include unmet need for family planning, modern contraceptive prevalence rate (​mCPR), and family planning access, equity, quality, and choice.