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.

The private sector holds great potential to reduce unmet need for family planning, and many countries are poised to adopt a total market approach for increasing contraceptive access through private pharmacies and drug shops. Policies supporting scale-up of family planning service provision and expanding method options such as DMPA-SC self-injection, must be prioritized in these entities.

The PATH-JSI DMPA-SC Access Collaborative and partners have gained valuable insights with relevance to private sector engagement on self-injection. This webinar held February 15, 2022 highlighted lessons learnt, challenges, recommendations, and considerations for policies supporting private sector engagement in self-injection in different country contexts. Specific topics included:

• Financing and commodity production ecosystems
• Procurement and supply chains
• Service delivery and programming
• Data reporting and monitoring
• Advocacy
• Demand generation

The discussion was moderated by Allen Namagembe, Deputy Project Director, Uganda DMPA-SC Access Collaborative, PATH.

Panelists:

• Dr. Kayode Afolabi, Director and Head, Reproductive Health Division, Federal Ministry of Health, Nigeria
• Dr. Daniella Munene, Member, National Executive Committee, Pharmaceutical Society of Kenya
• Dr. Hortense Randrianaivo, President, Association of Pharmacists of Madagascar
• Mr. Célestin Compaore, Regional Project Director, DMPA-SC, Jhpiego, Burkina Faso

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 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.

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.

As part of the Global Health Science and Practice (GHTechX) conference, CHAI, FHI 360, PATH, the Population Council, PSI, and WCG hosted an April 22, 2021 session to synthesize lessons learned across contraceptive introduction of implants, DMPA-SC self-injection, hormonal IUS and other methods. During the session, experts from Kenya, Madagascar, Uganda, and the United States outlined essential steps for the process of contraceptive product introduction, described common challenges, and shared tools and approaches based on experiences with the three methods. Session slides are available below. To watch the recording of this and many other sessions, register for free on the GHTechX website.

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.

Background: The Family Planning 2020 initiative aims to reach 120 million new family planning users by 2020. Drug shops and pharmacies are important private-sector sources of contraception in many contexts but are less well understood than public-sector sources, especially in urban environments. This article explores the role that drug shops and pharmacies play in the provision of contraceptive methods in selected urban areas of Nigeria and Kenya as well as factors associated with women’s choice of where to obtain these methods.

Methods: Using data collected in 2010/2011 from representative samples of women in selected urban areas of Nigeria and Kenya as well as a census of pharmacies and drug shops audited in 2011, we examine the role of drug shops and pharmacies in the provision of short-acting contraceptive methods and factors associated with a women’s choice of family planning source.

Results: In urban Nigeria and Kenya, drug shops and pharmacies were the major source for the family planning methods of oral contraceptive pills, emergency contraceptives, and condoms. The majority of injectable users obtained their method from public facilities in both countries, but 14% of women in Nigeria and 6% in Kenya obtained injectables from drug shops or pharmacies. Harder-to-reach populations were the most likely to choose these outlets to obtain their short-acting methods. For example, among users of these methods in Nigeria, younger women (<25 years old) were significantly more likely to obtain their method from a drug shop or pharmacy than another type of facility. In both countries, family planning users who had never been married were significantly more likely than married users to obtain these methods from a drug shop or a pharmacy than from a public-sector health facility. Low levels of family planning-related training (57% of providers in Kenya and 41% in Nigeria had received training) and lack of family planning promotional activities in pharmacies and drug shops in both countries indicate the need for additional support from family planning programs to leverage this important access point.

Conclusions: Drug shops and pharmacies offer an important and under-leveraged mechanism for expanding family planning access to women in urban Nigeria and Kenya, and potentially elsewhere. Vulnerable and harder-to-reach groups such as younger, unmarried women and women who do not yet have children are the most likely to benefit from increased access to family planning at drug shops and pharmacies.