Clinic Program: Improving Family Planning Services

Activity Dates: 1999 - present

Themes: Gender & Sexuality, Capacity Building, Family Planning and Maternal Health, HIV/AIDS

• Overview
• Objectives
• Activities
• Outputs
• Impact
• Unique Features
• Future Plans
• Partners

Overview

The Family Planning (FP) Counseling Kit has been developed and produced by the Central Board of Health (CBOH) and its partners, ZIHP and UNFPA. The kit is a facility-based counseling tool for service providers. Included in the kit are guidelines on how providers can profile clients to meet their individual needs during each visit, and also how providers can counsel clients on dual protection, especially in the context of married couples. To distribute the kits and disseminate the information in the shortest and most cost effective way, the CBOH, ZIHP, and UNFPA conducted provincial Training of Trainers (TOTs) sessions in Lusaka, Mansa, Kasama, and Kabwe.

Objectives

• Improve the quality of family planning counseling.
• Reduce the time that clients spend at the clinic through counseling that is focused and based on individual need.
• Increase in the number of clients using dual protection.
  

Activities

Four trainings conducted on how to use the FP Counseling Kit in Lusaka, Mansa, Kasama, and Kabwe.

Family Planning Counseling Kit: Counsel on Dual Protection in Zambia (1.8 MB)

Outputs

• In all four trainings, one representative from each district in that province, one from the nursing and/or midwifery training school, and a representative from the provincial health office were trained. Most of the representatives from the districts and the provincial office were clinical care specialists. In Lusaka there were 9 participants; Mansa, 9 participants; Kabwe, 6 participants; and Kasama, 11 participants. A combined team from CBOH and ZIHP provided facilitation.

• The FP Counseling Kit and Training Video rolled out nationwide to assist service providers on counseling women and men on HIV prevention in the context of FP.

Impact

Health care providers have a quality, easily accessible resource to use as an information guide in the changing health care environment of their communities.

Unique Features

This kit is modular, so new cards can be inserted and old cards removed or updated, as necessary. The material is robust (all cards fully laminated) to accommodate high use in the field.

Future Plans

• Continue TOT sessions and roll out training in remaining five provinces, starting with North Western, Copper Belt and Eastern, Southern and Western. Each district will plan and conduct a similar training for health center staff.
• Collect all feedback (evaluation forms) from health centers, analyze data, and write a final report for the entire project.

Partners

• Ministry of Health
• Central Board of Health
• UNFPA
  

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