Center for Health Market Innovations (CHMI)

Programs

Community-Based Family Planning Program

last updated Nov 15, 2011

Overview

Implementing organization: 
Pathfinder International
Legal Status: 
Private (not-for-profit)
Year Launched: 
2008
Income Level of Target Population: 
Bottom 20%, 20-60% (lower to lower-middle)

Funding

Primary Source of Funding: 
Donor
Summary: 

The program centers on increasing family planning services and reducing unwanted pregnancies through relying heavily on volunteer community health workers to deliver information and services to local neighborhoods and homes. The CHWs make it possible to reach out to a larger population at the lowest possible cost as opposed to traditional clinical-based service models.

Program goals/rationale: 

The Community-Based Family Planning Project will build on existing networks of community-home based care providers in communities with the main focus on increasing access to family planning and reproductive health services, and in Tanzania, emphasis is also put on these services to be accesses by those living with HIV/AIDS.

Key program components: 

The program trains community-based distribution agents who provide information and referrals; and also educates local communities on reproductive health and the importance of family planning in improving the health and well being of families and communities, dispelling misconceptions and addressing gender-based challenges to family planning. It also supplies contraceptives and equips health centers with clean water supplies for infection prevention to improve the quality of services offered.

In Tanzania, the program centers on increasing family planning services and reducing unwanted pregnancies in Dar es Salaam, Arusha, and Kilimanjaro through a combination of community home-based care and clinic-based service delivery, with focus on reaching out to people living with HIV/AIDS and families affected by the pandemic.

Program history: 

Pathfinder initiated the Community-Based Family Planning Program to bring services close to the most vulnerable populations with high levels of unmet reproductive health and family planning needs like northern Uganda where the over 20 years conflict significantly limited the availability of quality services. The program was launched to offer community-based reproductive health services to people in the under served urban neighborhoods and isolated rural areas reaching thousands of women daily while empowering them with information they need to change their lives and sparking wider social change in countries and areas of operation.

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