Reproductive Health

Scaling Up Health Service Delivery: from Pilot Innovations to Policies and Programs

This book considers the topic of scaling up with a focus on ways to increase the impact of health service innovations that have been tested in pilot or experimental projects so as to benefit more people and to foster policy and program development on a lasting, sustainable basis.

Chapter 8 of this book describes an innovative educational approach to capacity building and scaling up reproductive health services in Latin America. It explains how the capacity to provide innovative training was scaled up in public sector reproductive health services in Brazil, Bolivia and Chile. [from introd

Youth Friendly Pharmacies and Partnerships: the CMS-CELSAM Experience

The Commercial Market Strategies project (CMS) developed a network of youth-friendly pharmacies to provide reproductive health information and contraceptives to youth in Guanajuato, Mexico. The network involved the commercial sector in providing reproductive health and family planning services, as well as respecting youths’
privacy and reducing their potential embarrassment when obtaining those services. [from abstract]

Evidence-Based Planning for Sustainability of Government Reproductive Health Services

This training manual is designed to be used to prepare local government health teams to use evidence-based methods to develop long-term plans to strengthen their Reproductive Health (RH) programs. [from abstract]

Cost Effectiveness of Standard Days Method Refresher Trainings Using the Knowledge Improvement Tool in Guatemala

The Knowledge Improvement Tool (KIT) was created to allow family planning supervisors to quickly identify gaps in knowledge of Standard Days Method (SDM) providers, allowing them to provide targeted, effective support during routine supervisory visits. This study was designed to compare the effectiveness and the cost benefit of KIT to other methods of reinforcing SDM provider knowledge. [adapted from author]

Has the Navrongo Project in Northern Ghana Been Successful in Altering Fertility Preferences?

This document evaluates the expected change in the reproductive preferences of women due to the presence of volunteers and community health workers providing health service delivery in the communities through the Community Health and Family Planning project. In the communities where there is intervention, women seem to show that their fertility preferences are generally shifting towards small family sizes although the fertility levels are still high. [adapted from author]

Monitoring the Performance of a Reproductive Health Franchise in Nepal

This study examines the experience of the Sewa nurse and paramedic franchise in Nepal and assesses whether there were changes in the perceived quality of services approximately one year after the formation of the network. This study also examines the extent to which there was an increase in the use of reproductive health services during this period. [from introduction]

Mapping of Community Based Distribution Programs in Uganda

The mapping exercise illustrated in this report was conducted to inform and support the efforts of the Ugandan Ministry of Health to increase the contraceptive prevalence through enhanced community-based distribution (CBD) of family planning. The specific objectives of the exercise were to determine the historical and current coverage of CBD of family planning services in Uganda, by both governmental and nongovernmental programs, and to identify potential districts for scaling up these services. [adapted from summary]

Linking Family Planning with Postabortion Services in Egypt: Testing the Feasibility, Acceptability and Effectiveness of Two Models of Integration

This research study was undertaken to test the feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of two models of integrating family planning services with postabortion services.

Financing and Training Needs of Small-Scale Private Health Care Providers and Distributors in Romania

This report assesses the business development needs, particularly financial and training, of private health care providers and distributors of reproductive health and family planning products and services in Romania. [adapted from author]

Maximizing Private Sector Contribution to Family Planning in the Europe & Eurasia Region: Context Analysis and Review of Strategies

This paper looks at reproductive health and family planning programs in the Eastern Europe and Eurasian region. It includes: a methodology to analyze the RH/FP market; an overview of opportunities and constraints to the private sector region; a description of current practices in the region that foster a greater private sector role in the provision of FP services and products; and recommendations for leveraging and maximizing private sector contribution to RH/FP goals. [adapted from author]

Public Policy and Franchising Reproductive Health: Current Evidence and Future Directions

This guide offers policymakers and researchers the latest evidence on private-provider networks and franchises, lessons learned in the field, and policy recommendations on how to mobilize private-provider networks and health franchises to help address reproductive health care needs in developing countries. [adapted from publisher]

India Local Initiatives Program: A Model for Expanding Reproductive and Child Health Services

The India Local Initiatives Program adapted a model used in Indonesia and Bangladesh to implement the government’s reproductive and child health strategy. From 1999 to 2003, three Indian nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) provided services for 784,000 people in four northern states. This model proved to be a suitable platform upon which to build health-care service delivery and create behavioral change, and the NGOs quickly found ways to sustain and expand services. [from abstract]

Options and Challenges for Converging HIV and Sexual and Reproductive Health Services in India: Findings from an Assessment in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh

The report aims to share findings from an assessment to explore how access to critical services for populations at risk of HIV and unintended pregnancy can be strengthened by converging HIV and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) and the National Aids Control Programme (NACP). The report provides information on the demand and opportunities for and the challenges of implementing HIV and SRH convergence in four states

Policy Maker and Health Care Provider Perspectives on Reproductive Decision-Making Amongst HIV-Infected Individuals in South Africa

Health care providers play a crucial role in determining access to reproductive health services and their influence is likely to be heightened in delivering services to HIV-infected women. We examined the attitudes of health care policy makers and providers towards reproductive decision- making among HIV-infected individuals. [from abstract]

Community-Based Distribution of Depo-Provera: Evidence of Success in the African Context

In much of sub-Saharan Africa, a significant portion of the population lives in rural areas, leaving many women with limited access to clinic-based family planning services. Thus CBD of contraceptives remains an important service delivery mechanism in this region. The primary aim of this study was to assess the safety, quality, and feasibility of Depo-Provera provision by community reproductive health workers.

Training Modules for the Syndromic Management of Sexually Transmitted Infections

This guide is intended for people responsible for in-service training at any first-level health facility dedicated to the care of persons with sexually transmitted infections (STIs). It aims to equip the user with the skills and information needed to train all relevant clinicians and service providers in the management of persons with STIs, including syndromic management. It also suggests a number of ways the training could be adapted to respond best to local needs. It provides practical advice and information to help you plan and execute the training and assess outcomes effectively

Effective Training in Reproductive Health: Course Design and Delivery Trainer's Manual

This manual is designed to be a resource for trainers who lead training-of-trainers courses in the field of reproductive health. It is designed to provide trainers with all of the instructions and materials they need to help learners strengthen their training, communication and facilitation knowledge and skills, and to enable them to plan and implement more effective training courses. [author’s description]

Expansion of the Role of Nurse Auxiliaries in the Delivery of Reproductive Health Services in Honduras

The nurse auxiliaries who work at the rural health centers (CESARs) of the Honduran Ministry of Health (MOH) are frequently the only source of reproductive health services in the communities they serve. In order to increase access to long-term family planning methods, the MOH and the Population Council’s INOPAL III Project conducted an operations research study from 1997 to 1998 to see if nurse auxiliaries could provide good quality IUD, Depo-Provera and vaginal cytology services without health risks for their clients.

Impact of Private Clinic Networks on Client Service Access and Quality: Evidence from Ethiopia, India and Pakistan

This presentation is from PSP-One’s GHC Expert Panel - Expanding Health Service Access, Quality, and Equity in Developing Countries: The Role of the Private Sector. It presents franchise models for delivering family planning and reproductive health services by the private sector.

Improving the Performance of Primary Providers in Family Planning and Reproductive Health: Results and Lessons Learned from the PRIME II Project, 1999-2004

A foundation of collaborative partnership, strong technical staff and field presence, and practical monitoring and evaluation anchored the PRIME II Project’s successful efforts to improve the performance of primary providers of family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH) services. PRIME II’s global achievements and lessons learned are summarized in the first section; an overview of project results in each technical leadership and focus area is presented in Chapter 2. [author’s description]

Comprehensive Reproductive Health and Family Planning Training Curriculum: Module 14: Training of Trainers

This training manual is designed for use as part of the comprehensive family planning and reproductive health training of service providers. It is designed to be used to train physicians, nurses, and midwives. Sessions in this Training of Trainers (TOT) module include discussions, identification of trainer’s own learning style, training exercises, conducting training needs assessments, developing action plans, developing visual aids, and training practice sessions which are videotaped and critiqued. [from purpose]

Advanced Training of Trainers

This training manual is designed to prepare trainers who already have skills as reproductive health trainers to proceed to a higher level of training implementation. This module prepares them to conduct a training needs assessment, develop detailed plans for training, develop and pilot test a training curriculum, conduct training using more advanced training techniques, conduct training follow up and evaluate training. [publisher’s description]

Communication Action Groups: Promoting Broader Discussion of Reproductive Health

In 1996, the REWARD Project identified a need for effective interventions to increase women’s communication about reproductive health among themselves and with their husbands. Project staff formed women’s groups, called Communication Action Groups (CAGs), in three rural districts. The project provides group leaders with training on communication, leadership, group dynamics, condom use, condom negotiating skills, and HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

Reproductive Health Training for Primary Providers: A SourceBook for Curriculum Development

This modular training resource intended to help trainers integrate aspects of reproductive health (RH) into training curricula.

Sexual and Reproductive Health for HIV-Positive Women and Adolescent Girls: Manual for Trainers and Programme Managers

The goal of this training is to enable health workers to address the sexual and reproductive health (SRH) needs of HIV-positive women and adolescent girls by offering comprehensive SRH services within their own particular service-delivery setting. [from introduction]

Reproductive Health Manual for Trainers of Community Health Workers

This manual was developed to help organizations who provide reproductive health services through the community-based distribution approach to train their community health workers in reproductive health.

Gender Sensitivity Assessment Tool for FP/RH Curricula

A tool designed to help program and training managers, curriculum designers and trainers facilitate the operationalization and assessment of gender sensitivity during pre- and in-service training of service providers.

Understanding the Impact of Decentralization on Reproductive Health Services in Africa (RHD): South Africa Report

The development of the delivery of reproductive health services is continually confronted by challenges from a changing environment, an important element of which is health sector reform, in particular decentralization, which is being undertaken by most governments in Africa. The general objective of this research is to make health sector decentralisation more effective in the development of appropriate reproductive health services. In Chapter 8 human resource management and development as it has been affected by decentralization is discussed. [adapted from introduction]

Choices in Family Planning: Informed and Voluntary Decision Making

The guides in this toolkit are intented to be used to facilitate a broad discussion of the elements and conditions that underpin the concept of informed and voluntary decision making, help users assess the status of sexual reproductive health decision making in a given program by identifying the challenges and supporting factors at the individual/community, service-deliver, and policy levels, and to help users plan strategies to strengthen supports for clients’ reproductive health decision making.

Documentation and Assessment of the Reproductive and Child Health Alliance (RACHA) Program: an External Assessment

This assessment evalutes the RACHA program in Cambodia which was intended to strengthen the capacity and sustainability of the public and private sectors to deliver quality reproductive health and child survival services. The five technical intervention areas were birth spacing, STD/HIV prevention, safe motherhood, childhood diarrhoeal diseases and micronutrient deficiences. One of the key intermediate results identified within these areas was inproved human resource capacity to address these issues. [adapted from author]