Health Workers
- Injectable contraception provided by community-based health workers: one important step toward meeting unmet need
Community-based provision of injectable contraception continues to advance and is gaining wider acceptance—a major step toward meeting unmet need. However, fully addressing family planning need will require access to a much wider range of methods, including long-acting reversible contraception and permanent methods.
- “A cup of tea with our CBD agent … ”: community provision of injectable contraceptives in Kenya is safe and feasible
Community health workers can safely provide the injectable DMPA when appropriately trained and supervised. We also found a fivefold increase in contraceptive uptake—a finding that builds on evidence from other countries for supportive policy change.
- Building on safety, feasibility, and acceptability: the impact and cost of community health worker provision of injectable contraception
This project in Zambia contributes to our understanding of the impact of community-based provision of injectables on method choice and uptake and of the costs of adding DMPA to an established community-based family planning program. The project also illustrates the importance of involving stakeholders from the outset, analyzing costs relevant to scale up, and engaging in policy change dialogue not at the end, but rather throughout project implementation.
- Early pregnancy detection by female community health volunteers in Nepal facilitated referral for appropriate reproductive health services
Trained female community health volunteers provided low-cost urine pregnancy tests in their communities, leading to counseling and appropriate referrals for antenatal care, family planning, or comprehensive abortion care.