Family Planning

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Overview

Join HIFA!

The HIFA Project on Family Planning and Contraception (FP/C) promotes multi-stakeholder communication, understanding and advocacy to improve the availability and use of FP/C information for frontline health workers, citizens, and policy makers.

'214 million women who want to avoid pregnancy are not using safe and effective family planning methods, for reasons ranging from lack of access to information or services to lack of support from their partners or communities' (UNFPA). Improved access to FP/C information, services and commodities helps families attain their desired number of children and determine the spacing of pregnancies. It also helps avoid unwanted pregnancies. Reaching the Family Planning 2020 goal of delivering contraceptives, information and services to an additional 120 million women of reproductive age worldwide by 2020 could 'cumulatively prevent 100 million unintended pregnancies, 3 million infant deaths, and 200,000 pregnancy- and childbirth-related deaths'. Indeed, FP Is key to achieving all 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

Note: This project was funded by the Knowledge for Health (K4Health) Project of the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (CCP), K4Health ended in 2019 and the HIFA FP project is currently seeking low-level funding to continue our work in 2021 and beyond. 

Activities

A series of three thematic discussions (each 3-4 weeks in duration) will be supported on HIFA during 2017-18, to explore ways to improve the availability and use of FP/C information for the general public, frontline health workers, and policymakers. The first discussion - Meeting the Family Planning and Contraception information needs of adolescents, girls, women, and men - starts on 18 September 2017. 

These discussions were preceded by a Survey (August 2017) to assess current FP information needs and sources of information. The results are here.

The Project may also undertake a literature review, depending on perceived need.

Throughout the Project will raise awareness of the K4Health Topics Pages as a global FP/C information resource.

 

 

Publications
2018

HIFA Discussion on Family Planning #2
Empowering Health Workers for Better Family Planning 
26 March - 22 April 2018
LONG EDIT

2018

HIFA Discussion on Family Planning #2
Empowering Health Workers for Better Family Planning 
26 March - 22 April 2018
Messages IN FULL

2017

HIFA Discussion on Family Planning #1 (Short edit: 3 pages)
Meeting the Family Planning and Contraception information needs of adolescents, girls, women, and men
18 Sep - 15 Oct 2017

2018

HIFA Discussion on Family Planning #1 (Long edit: 15 pages, revised February 2018)
Meeting the Family Planning and Contraception information needs of adolescents, girls, women, and men
18 Sep - 15 Oct 2017
 

2017

HIFA Discussion on Family Planning #1
Meeting the Family Planning and Contraception information needs of adolescents, girls, women, and men
18 Sep - 15 Oct 2017
Messages IN FULL

2017

Key points:
1. 93 respondents: 10% working globally, 10% mainly in UK, 10% mainly in Nigeria, and 4-5% each mainly in India, Cameroon, Uganda, Senegal and Zambia. Many other countries were represented in smaller numbers
2. Respondents were diverse professionally: Researchers/academics make up the largest group, with healthcare providers as the second largest group. There were no respondents who identified themselves as ‘Government representatives’
3. More than two-thirds of respondents said they were ‘very interested’ in learning about ‘Key tools and resources on FP/C’; 'How to improve the use of evidence-based FP/C information among health workers, citizens and policymakers'; and 'Promising practices and challenges in supporting FP/C service delivery’. 
4. A notable and unexpected finding is that more than two-thirds were 'very interested'in how to improve the use of evidence-based FP/C information among policymakers
5. ‘Information that is not up to date’ is described as the main challenge, followed closely by ‘poor access to library/internet’ and ‘Information is not freely available’ In addition, many comments pointed to ‘too much information’, ‘difficult to find relevant info’, lack of information in the right language, lack of information appropriate for different user groups (general, policymakers), and lack of critical appraisal skills .
6. Interestingly, Email was cited as the most popular mechanism for receiving information about new developments in the field of FP/C, followed by systematic reviews and peer-reviewed literature. 
7. 1 in 4 respondents thought their friends and colleagues believe that 'most contraceptives also protect against sexually transmitted infections such as HIV'
8. 1 in 7 respondents thought their friends and colleagues believe that 'contraceptives are dangerous to a woman’s health'
9. 1 in 7 respondents thought their friends and colleagues believe that 'contraceptives often cause long-term problems with fertility'

 

 

Members
Name Country
Amelia Abdelrazik Egypt
Fikre Keith United States
Gaia Mori Netherlands
Jennifer Kizza United States
John Liebhardt United Arab Emirates
Nandita Thatte Switzerland
Neil Pakenham-Walsh United Kingdom
Onikepe Oluwadamilola Owolabi United States
Peggy D'Adamo United States
Roy Jacobstein United States
Sarah Harlan United States