Elements of Family Planning Success

The Balanced Counseling Strategy Plus (BCS+) is a practical, interactive, client-friendly strategy to facilitate integration of voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) for sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV, within family planning service. This toolkit uses three key job aids (visual memory aids) for counseling on family planning, STI risk assessment, and method choice. Experience in Kenya and South Africa shows use of the BCS+ job aids improved the quality of services and counseling and increased the uptake of family planning and VCT.

This framework is a guide for our IPPF Member Associations and affiliated/partner organisations.

It builds upon, and complements, existing frameworks and provides an IPPF perspective on peer education.

It can be used by:

- programme designers
- managers
- coordinators
- senior managers overseeing larger peer education initiatives
- supervisors
- trainers
- young people

This online training course is based on the issue of Population Reports, "Elements of Success in Family Planning Programming." It summarizes the core factors contributing to success in family planning programming, as identified by family planning professionals around the world. It highlights program experiences, best practices, and lessons learned. These guiding principles can help family planning professionals plan new programs, make improvements to existing programs, and prepare for future developments and challenges. The course is free and available to all who are interested.

Family Health International's Contraceptive and Reproductive Health Technologies and Research Utilization (CRTU) program is pleased to announce the release of a new family planning checklist for screening clients who want to initiate the use of contraceptive implants.

The Balanced Counseling Strategy (BCS) was developed by the Population Council to improve client–provider interaction in family planning provision. The process, tested and refined in several countries, involves a set of steps to determine the method that best suits the client according to her/his preferences and reproductive health intentions.

This kit provides information and tools with which decision-makers can advocate for and initiate community-based distribution (CBD) of the injectable contraceptive depot-medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA or Depo-Provera). Drawing on research and programs from Africa, Asia, and Latin America, the kit presents seven briefs with evidence supporting the safety and efficacy of CBD provision of DMPA. It discusses best practices for successful CBD of DMPA provision, such as training, counseling, and ensuring supply.

This package can help inform policy-makers, program managers, and donors on the benefits of and approaches for introducing or revitalizing long-acting and permanent methods (LAPMs) within national reproductive health and family planning programs in Africa.

To make informed contraceptive choices, clients require an accurate understanding of pregnancy risks. As a result of an earlier USAID-supported study by FHI showing that a simplified counseling chart can improve women's understanding of contraceptive effectiveness better than more complex tools can, a panel of experts from USAID, the INFO Project JHU/CCP, EngenderHealth, and FHI drafted this chart, which presents contraceptive methods on a continuum of effectiveness. The chart is also available in French and Spanish.

The Training and Reference Guides for Family Planning Screening Checklists are a series of four publications designed for program managers, administrators, trainers, and service providers interested in learning how to use the checklists to screen women wishing to initiate use of family planning methods, including combined oral contraceptives (COCs), injectables (DMPA and NET-EN), the copper intrauterine device (IUD), and implants (available soon).

This PRB data sheet presents information about women, fertility rates, and contraceptive methods used in more than 150 countries.