Summary

Program goals

With one in three married women facing unmet need for family planning, the private sector can do more to increase access and act as a complement to government services. The goal is to expand and standardize sexual and reproductive health services in the private sector, in order to improve access to quality health care for Ethiopians while supporting family planning and safe abortion services which will soon include HIV counseling, testing, STI management servies in the franchise project areas.

Key program components

Franchisees receive free training, onsite tech assistance, subsidized or free equipment, and in exchange, they accept routine monitoring visits, report monthly statistics and adhere to clinical protocol and other terms laid out in the agreement.

The clinics and hospitals are licensed by the Drug Administration and Control Authority. BlueStar Ethiopia provides a range of Family Planning and Safe Abortion services, directly or through referral. Blue Star Ethiopia is considered to be the first to offer long-term and permanent family planning methods in the private sector. Quality assurance and performance monitoring methods include: site inspections (6 per year), internal clinic audits (1 per year), client exit interviews (1 per year).

Data on quality are captured in a follow-up sheet, activities are assigned to the franchisee and franchisor, and the field officers follow up regarding proper implementation of action items within a specific time frame. Program personnel report that the quality assessment checklist and provider ranking tools are the most informative measurement tools.