Elements of Family Planning Success

The Ministry of Health and its cooperating partners have embarked on a major effort to strengthen the supply chain for essential drugs (ED). This project is implemented by the Government of the Republic of Zambia (GRZ) with support from the World Bankfunded Medical Stores Limited (MSL), JSI Logistics Services, and the USG-funded USAID | DELIVER PROJECT.

The pilot was designed using ACQUIRE’s FP-ART integration framework, which outlines five levels of integrating FP into HIV services. Facilities can choose from the levels, and can add to them progressively, depending on their capabilities and resource (Farrell, 2007). TASO/M integrated to Level C. It provides four modern FP methods—condoms (already offered for HIV/STI prevention), oral contraceptives, injectables, and emergency contraceptive pills—along with referrals for long-acting and permanent methods (LAPMs) to the Mbale Regional Referral Hospital, located a few yards from TASO/M.

EngenderHealth announces a new publication, Sexual and Reproductive Health of Women and Girls Living with HIV: Guidance for Program Managers, Health Workers and Activists. Based on experiences in Brazil, this resource offers guidance and recommendations for creating programs that protect and promote the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and girls living with HIV and AIDS in four key areas:

• Creating a political and social environment that respects, protects and promotes sexual and reproductive rights;

On May 12th, ACCESS-FP hosted a meeting on the topic of "Postpartum Family Planning: Sharing Experiences, Lessons Learned and Tools for Programming." Presentations from the meeting are now available on our website.

A report from the meeting will be available in the next month. Most of the documents distributed during the meeting as well as a number of other PPFP related tools are resources are available in our new "PPFP Toolkit" that can be accessed at http://www.ppfp-toolkit.org/: The toolkit will be continuously updated with new resources related to PPFP.

This manual is intended to promote positive health outcomes for mothers, newborns, and infants by improving health workers' skills in fostering healthy timing and spacing of pregnancy (HTSP). It provides practical information and guidance on how to conduct a two-day training for primary health facility-based health workers in providing postpartum family planning information, education, and counselling, and in increasing postpartum women's access to all family planning (FP) methods and services.

This archive constitutes legacy of The ACQUIRE Project and has been designed as a searchable knowledge resource for the reproductive health and family planning (RH/FP) community. It contains a wide range of resources that were developed over the life of the project, at both the global and the country (field) levels. This content reflects the experience of programs from all regions and the outcomes of an extended global-field partnership dedicated to delivering more services to more people in more places.

This Population Reports issue is the flagship publication of the "Elements of Family Planning Success" initiative that identified the top 10 elements most important to the success of family planning programs in coordination with health care professionals from around the world. The report synthesizes online discussions about these elements and highlights program experiences, best practices, and evidence-based guidance derived from nearly six decades in international family planning.

This short publication offers clear suggestions for programme managers to address unmet need for family planning in the face of current political, financial, and health-systems challenges. It also comprises the 25th anniversary issue of Outlook, which since 1983, has synthesized the latest scientific research and evidence on effective reproductive health programming and made it available to programme managers, policymakers, health care providers, researchers, and educators around the world.

In September 2006, the CDC recommended that the interpretation of 'general consent' for medical care include HIV screening, which eliminated the need for a separate, written consent. Routine baseline prenatal screening should include an HIV test, with re-screening in the third trimester for women at high risk for HIV infection, including women with symptoms of acute HIV infection or women residing in a community with a high incidence of HIV infection among women of childbearing age (17 or more cases of HIV infection per 100,00 person-years).

You are cordially invited to explore and utilize the new Resource Package for Family Planning and Beyond: The ACQUIRE Project Digital Archive at http://www.acquireproject.org/archive