This resource provides a high-level summary of the current state of self-injection policy development, implementation, and monitoring in each of the Injectables Access Collaborative’s 11 focus countries: Benin, DRC, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Togo, Uganda, and Zambia. The policy cycle landscape (i.e., policy development, implementation, and monitoring) features an overview of the enabling environment for self-injection in each country, including general self-injection and self-care policies, as well as local authorizations for task-sharing/task-shifting. The information is current as of Quarter 2, 2025.

This webinar held on February 23, 2022 was hosted by Expanding Effective Contraceptive Options (EECO) led by WCG Cares with PSI and the DMPA-SC Access Collaborative led by PATH in partnership with JSI. The discussion focused on the introduction and scale up of self-care family planning methods in sub-Saharan Africa, highlighting lessons and best practices from DMPA-SC scale-up and Caya® diaphragm pilot introductions in French-speaking West Africa. Presenters from Benin, Niger, and Senegal shared successes and challenges. This webinar was offered in French.

The country dashboard is a visual presentation of key data for a select list of priority countries; it provides a snapshot of the state and stage of DMPA-SC introduction/scale-up, allowing stakeholders to assess progress, identify roadblocks, guide course corrections, and inform decisions.

Programmatic Results

The Republic of Benin faces high maternal, newborn, and child mortality; low modern contraceptive use; and a critical shortage of health workers. In 2013, the Government of Benin made 3 reproductive health commitments to improve national health indicators, including expanding provision of family planning services at the community level through task sharing. Since 2016, the Advancing Partners & Communities (APC) project has been helping the Benin Ministry of Health (MOH) provide subcutaneous depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA-SC; brand name Sayana Press) through facility-based health care providers and community health workers known as relais communautaires (RCs). DMPA-SC is an easy-to-administer, discreet injectable contraceptive that provides 3 months of protection from pregnancy. Beginning in May 2017, the government introduced DMPA-SC through a phased approach in 10 health zones, which encompassed 149 health centers and 614 villages. Between June 2017 and June 2018, the MOH and APC trained 278 facility-based providers and 917 RCs to provide DMPA-SC, and nearly 11,000 doses were subsequently administered to 7,997 women at facilities and in communities. This article presents findings from an assessment of community-level and health facility service data collected during the first 13 months of DMPA-SC introduction in Benin. Because of this intervention, nearly 35,000 women received family planning counseling and 7,997 women chose DMPA-SC. At the community level, 3,111 DMPA-SC users were first-time users of modern contraception. The initial success of the DMPA-SC rollout in Benin shows promise for helping the country meet its reproductive health commitments.

Advancing Partners & Communities (APC) advances programs that improve the overall health of communities, especially family planning (FP). The project increases access to community-based family planning (CBFP) services, including Sayana Press, a progestin-only injectable contraceptive that provides three-months of coverage, similar to Depo-Provera. Sayana Press, however, it is unique in that it combines the needle and drug in a small, lightweight, easy-to-use single dose container. APC is working to introduce and scale up community-based distribution of this new commodity in Benin and Uganda. The project is also investigating community-based provision of injectables for home and self-injection in Malawi. Each of these efforts has the potential to dramatically increase the number of contraceptive users at country and global levels, reducing the percentage of women and couples who have an unmet need for contraception.