Elements of Family Planning Success

We investigate the association between maternal mortality and demographic, programmatic, and socioeconomic factors using longitudinal data on nearly 143,000 pregnancy outcomes during 1982-2002 from the Matlab Demographic Surveillance System. Among the four “toos” that are commonly believed to increase maternal mortality risk – too young, too short an interval, too many children, and too old -- only too old is found to be a significant risk factor. Controlling for gravidity, women under age 25 have the lowest risk of maternal mortality, which then increases sharply with age.

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 paper demonstrates a methodology that Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) ministries of health can easily use to geographically identify and target scarce resources to improve access to family planning. Guatemala was chosen as a case study for implementing the methodology, in large part because of the disparities that exist between its different subpopulations. The results highlight the potential for applying this methodology in other countries in the LAC region.

Contraceptive security is achieved when individuals have the ability to choose, obtain, and use quality contraceptives whenever they need them. The success story, "A Strong Supply Chain Responds to Increased Demand for Contraceptives in Rwanda," highlights how, during the last 10 years, the many changes made by the Rwandan Ministry of Health and its partners (including the USAID | DELIVER PROJECT) led to an increased demand for family planning at the local level.

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.

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

A report on an online global discussion forum on the IBP Knowledge Gateway (www.ibpinitiative.org), sponsored by the INFO Project, in collaboration with the World Health Organization and partners of the Implementing Best Practices (IBP) Initiative.  The objective of the forum was to share program experiences, review research findings, highlight resources, and reach consensus on the core elements of successful family planning programs.

This document presents the results of an operations research project implemented by the MOH in Honduras with the technical and administrative assistance from the Population Council’s Frontiers in Reproductive Health (FRONTIERS) Program, ASHONPLAFA and EngenderHealth, and funding from USAID. This project tested a strategy to inform communities about the availability of the IUD in nearby health centers and about the method’s most salient attributes.