1. Practical Family Planning Integration: What does it really mean?” Jennifer Bergeson-Lockwood CBFP Technical Advisor USAID Office of Population and Reproductive Health CORE Group Spring Meeting May 12
7. What is Integration? Program integration is when two or more services are provided through a single program.
8. Examples of FP Integration Maternal Health Postpartum FP Child Health FP – Immunization FP with CCM HIV PMTCT VCT Environment PHE programs Nutrition
I thought it might help to give you some background on the Flexible Fund - The Flex Fund is a pot of PRH funds that was created in 2002, with the intention of supporting the FP activities of PVOs and NGOs. Victoria Graham and I manage the funds, which have been used to support a variety of projects over the last nine years - including those that many of you have worked on.
The main purpose of my little introductory presentation, before we get to the good stuff, is to talk about the FP resources that are available to help you as you devise and implement amazing programs. For most of you, this isn’t a tutorial, but a reminder. First, the Flexible Fund, with the assistance of the Flexible Fund Technical Support Project, has collected a number of resources. Basics of CBFP: # Overview of family planning and birth spacing at the global and individual level # Contraceptive Technology and family planning counseling # Family planning service provision # Barriers to family planning service delivery and models to increase access # Community mobilization # Quality of Care # Behavior Change # Male Involvement # Family Planning programming for youth # Integration into existing health activities # Contraceptive logistics # Site visit to a local community-based family planning program Technical Updates: Male involvement, Contraceptive Logistics, Involving Youth, CBFP and long acting methods Case Studies: Save the Children, IYF, WellShare and others.
In addition to what you’ll find on the Flex Fund site, there are great resources available on the Knowledge for Health website. There are two toolkits I want to call your attention to right now, and some others I’ll mention in a moment. First, there is a CBFP toolkit. This is the place to go, if you’re looking for resources on policy and Advocacy, training, services and supervision, or just examples of other programs. Secondly, It’s still under construction, but we’ve pulled out some of these CBFP resources to create a toolkit specifically about Community-based Access to Injectable Contraceptives. This will be the place to go for
Those are some general FP resources, but the topic of this session is about integration. So, before I talk about some of the resources available to help with integrated programs, I think it’s important to mention our definition of integration. It comes up in meetings all the time- “What does that mean, integration?” Well, I use a simple definition: Some integrated programs offer two similar services as one, coordinated and combined service. The idea is that both interventions benefit, that women and communities benefit, and that there may be cost savings from combining programs. Integration can take a variety of forms.
An example is the addition of family planning to an existing health program as a way to improve quality of services, increase the method mix, expand access to FP services, or make services affordable or convenient to clients. Alternatively, family planning can be integrated into non-health program such as environmental protection, water and sanitation or micro-enterprise. Family planning integration with health and non-health sector programs, offers an opportunity for family planning to enhance the work of other activities and interventions, and vice versa. It also capitalizes on existing programs and expands service delivery into underserved geographical areas. This picture is of two general community health volunteers (gCHVs) in Liberia, where Equip was testing CCM of Malaria, Diarrhea, and ARI and FP.
We act like integration is a new thing; under the GHI we say USAID is now focusing on Smart integration. As if USAID has never done that, or you all have never done that before. But we know that’s not the case. I know that Linda will mention some of these resources in her presentation, but there are a wealth of resources for integrated PHE programs. The K4H toolkit has a many resources that are useful for program designers and managers, including a Programming Manual, evidence / examples, and a tool for how to do M&E of integrated programs.
Not my area of expertise, but
Most of the materials for PPFP have been collected in the toolkit on K4H. You can find training manuals for CHWs, LAM counseling training tools, and even job aids that combine MH, FP, and Newborn Health messages. I know MCHIP is working on other tools and resources for FP-MCH integration - perhaps we’ll hear about some of those today.
I also want to let you know about a the FP-MNCH-Nutrition Technical Consultation on Integration, held by USAID in March. Reviewed evidence, made recommendations for moving forward and for the evidence still needed. Website (also on K4H) should be pubic soon - Will have programmatic examples of integration, assessments and evaluations, as well as the recommendations for each of the 4 subgroups. Looking for input and dialogue - please give your input and thoughts to the discussion, regardless of whether you were at the Consultation
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