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.

Subcutaneous depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA-SC) is an innovative contraceptive method aimed at meeting women’s unique circumstances and needs, largely due to its ability to be self-injected. Substantial research and advocacy investments have been made to promote roll-out of DMPA-SC across sub-Saharan Africa. To date, research on the demand for DMPA-SC as a self-injectable method has been conducted largely with healthcare providers, via qualitative research, or with highly specific subsamples that are not population based. Using three recent rounds of data from Performance Monitoring for Action, we examined population-representative trends in demand, use, and preference for self-injection among current non-users in Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of Congo (Kinshasa and Kongo Central regions), Kenya, and Nigeria (Lagos and Kano States). We found that while over 80.0% of women had heard of injectables across settings, few women had heard of self-injection (ranging from 13.0% in Kenya to 24.8% in Burkina Faso). Despite initial increases in DMPA-SC prevalence, DMPA-SC usage began to stagnate or even decrease in all settings in the recent three years (except in Nigeria-Kano). Few (0.0%–16.7%) current DMPA-SC users were self-injecting, and the majority instead were relying on a healthcare provider for administration of DMPA-SC. Among current contraceptive non-users wishing to use an injectable in the future, only 1.5%–11.4% preferred to self-inject. Our results show that self-injection is uncommon, and demand for self-injection is very limited across six settings, calling for further qualitative and quantitative research on women’s views on DMPA-SC and self-injection and, ultimately, their contraceptive preferences and needs.

In recent years, Ministries of Health and organizations have leveraged the Catalytic Opportunity Fund (COF) to make significant contributions to the national introduction and scale-up of DMPA-SC and self-injection. A rapid funding mechanism that supports short-term DMPA-SC scale-up activities that unlock or generate additional resources, the COF is administered by the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) and managed by the DMPA-SC Operations Group.*

This DMPA-SC Learning and Action Network (LAN) webinar held on July 7, 2022 featured successful COF grantees in the DRC, Rwanda, and Zambia. Speakers highlighted considerations for pharmacy and drug shop introduction, recommendations, and lessons from the DMPA-SC Access Collaborative’s experience in Zambia, inroads made by Pathfinder and Tulane university in the DRC, and early insights from Kasha’s last-mile family planning services delivery in Rwanda.

*The DMPA-SC Operations Group, convened by the Access Collaborative under the oversight of the DMPA-SC Donor Consortium, is a coordinating mechanism to proactively manage and reactively respond to both operational and service delivery issues arising from efforts to introduce, scale up, and ultimately increase access to DMPA-SC and self-injection.

DMPA-SC is a three-month injectable contraceptive that is easy to use and uniquely suited for self-injection. Demonstration and practice injections are a key part of training programs for both health workers and self-injection clients. Based on lessons learned in five countries, this memo summarizes PATH’s recommendations regarding devices for injection demonstration and practice, injection practice models, and waste disposal.

The DMPA-SC Access Collaborative has published a collection of briefs on countries where we have provided focused technical assistance between 2017 and 2021. This includes the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Madagascar, Nigeria, Uganda, and Zambia. Each brief describes the country’s introduction and scale-up experiences for DMPA-SC and self-injection, including accomplishments, challenges, innovations, key lessons, factors for success, and plans for the way forward.

This article compares results from interviews with DMPA-SC providers in two separate pilot studies: 1) 53 medical and nursing school students teaching women how to self-inject (2016–2017); and 2) 34 lay community health workers providing DMPA-SC in rural areas of Lualaba (2017). All providers gave information on socio-demographic characteristics, recruitment,) training, supervision, experience and satisfaction with the provision of DMPA-SC. The paper examines variations in responses from the different provider cadres.

This policy landscape can be leveraged by applicants interested in applying to the DMPA-SC Regulatory Advocacy Catalytic Opportunity Fund (COF). The landscape was originally developed in 2020 to understand policies and regulations, including over-the-counter regulations, that impact women’s access to DMPA-SC and identify short- and long-term advocacy opportunities. In 2022, it was refreshed to understand policy shifts and additional advocacy opportunities in a subset of 12 of the original 18 countries currently eligible for the Regulatory Advocacy COF. Insights from the policy landscape have informed the design and eligibility criteria of the Regulatory Advocacy COF, proactively identified opportunities, and provided frameworks and guidance for interested applicants.

The desire for private sector family planning programs to have the ability to overbrand/overpackage the Pfizer Inc. DMPA-SC product, Sayana® Press, has existed since initial product introduction planning discussions among global partners in 2008–2009. The PATH-JSI DMPA-SC Access Collaborative solicited input from the team’s regional technical advisors, country coordinators, and local partners to better understand the status of overbranding, and any related advocacy­­, in the countries where we work.

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.

The objective of this research is to assess the acceptability of the provision of subcutaneously administered depo medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA-SC) by nonclinically trained community health workers (CHWs) among acceptors in the rural province of Lualaba in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).In 2017, 34 CHWs received training in provision of DMPA-SC. Among other methods, DMPA-SC by CHWs was offered during household visits and at community outreach events. The initial survey included questions on acceptors’ demographic characteristics, contraceptive use history and experience with provision of DMPA-SC by a CHW. The follow-up included questions about side effects experienced and continuation of DMPA-SC by a CHW. Seventy-four percent of initial acceptors of DMPA-SC (N=252) were first-time contraception users. Almost all (96.0%) felt very comfortable with a CHW performing the injection rather than a physician or nurse, and 97.6% perceived that the CHW was very comfortable performing the injection. A total of 239 women were interviewed at follow-up. Most expressed satisfaction with the method despite some side effects experienced. Almost all acceptors (97.9%) were satisfied with the information provided by CHWs, and 93.8% were satisfied with the overall service. Most (96.4%) would choose to continue receiving DMPA-SC by a CHW rather than in a health clinic, and 95.2% would recommend DMPA-SC by a CHW to a friend. Overall, administration of DMPA-SC by CHWs is acceptable to users in Lualaba. DMPA-SC can be safely provided within the community after proper training. This study validates the use of CHWs (without clinical training) to provide DMPA-SC in a rural sub-Saharan African setting. It also represents an important step in obtaining official MOH authorization for the scale-up of this mechanism of distribution to other underserved regions in the DRC.