Materials by Country :

Kenya

To standardize clinical skills and training, improve quality, and facilitate access to a full range of contraceptive options by women and couples, RESPOND built a corps of trainers to deliver minilaparotomy under local anesthesia in four countries, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi.

Reality Check Experiences: Use of a Program Planning and Advocacy Tool for Family Planning Initiatives (Project Brief No. 22)
Reality Check is an easy-to-use tool that family planning (FP) programs can use to set realistic FP goals and plan for service expansion to meet them, as well as to generate data for advocacy purposes. Between 2010 and 2014, RESPOND conducted Reality Check activities in Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Senegal, Tajikistan, and Togo. This brief summarizes outcomes from and experiences in these countries and identifies keys to successful adoption.
Available in English (PDF, 3.2 MB)

The Female Sterilization Standardization Plus Initiative: Building Capacity for Providing Minilaparotomy in Four Countries (Project Brief No. 21)
While a large number of couples in developing countries have an unmet need to limit future births, many of these countries lack easy access to female and male sterilization services. RESPOND undertook an activity to increase service providers’ capacity to deliver high-quality female sterilization services in four countries in Africa. Its objective was to standardize the skills of minilaparotomy trainers in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi, who would then conduct cascade trainings with additional providers in their home countries.
Available in English (PDF, 3.4 MB)

Communities Take Action in Kenya: Strengthening Postabortion Care (Project Brief No. 13)
In Kenya, abortion-related complications are a leading cause of morbidity among women. RESPOND designed an intervention package, the Community Mobilization for Postabortion Care (COMMPAC) project, to increase awareness and use of postabortion care (PAC) services and improving family planning, reproductive health, and maternal health outcomes. After the intervention, women in the project areas were more likely to seek PAC services at dispensaries when they experienced pregnancy complications than those in comparison areas, and providers became more confident about offering such services.
Available in English (PDF, 3.7 MB) and French (PDF, 3.4 MB)

Kenyan Family Planning Providers Leverage Local Resources to Train Their Peers on Long-Acting and Permanent Methods (Project Brief No. 4)
In response to declining use of long-acting and permanent methods (LA/PMs) in Kenya, the Ministry of Health's Department of Reproductive Health asked the RESPOND Project to help them implement their strategy for improving the uptake of LA/PMs in the family planning program. RESPOND implemented an innovative approach designed to quickly and sustainably increase the number of providers prepared to offer LA/PMs, while fostering ownership and sustainability by leveraging local resources for training. As a result, at the facilities where providers were trained, family planning clients adopted 25 times more implants and seven times more IUDs in May 2011 than in May 2010.
Available in English (PDF, 3.5 MB)

Community Mobilization and Service Strengthening to Increase Awareness and Use of Post-abortion Care in Kenya: A Controlled, Pre-Post Assessment
A community engagement and service-strengthening intervention was introduced in Kenya to raise awareness of family planning and the risk of bleeding early in pregnancy bleeding and to increase use of both family planning and postabortion care (PAC) services. The intervention was carried out in three communities in Kenya over 18 months; three additional communities served as the comparison group. A quasi-experimental evaluation showed that awareness of family planning increased in the intervention group. Recognition of early bleeding during pregnancy rose slightly, as did care-seeking for this problem. The intervention appeared to raise awareness of family planning and of bleeding in early pregnancy, but not necessarily the use of related services. International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Volume 126, Issue 1, July 2014, pages 8–13.
Available online in English

Fostering Change in Medical Settings: A Holistic Programming Approach to “Revitalizing” IUD Use in Kenya
This book chapter discusses strategies to accelerate the rate, extent, and sustainability of change in medical care settings. It uses as a case example a two-year technical assistance project mounted by the RESPOND Project to revitalize use of the intrauterine device (IUD) in Kisii District of Kenya’s Nyanza Province. The project followed a holistic model involving a package of programmatic activities addressing supply, demand, and the policy/advocacy area. IUD use rose as a result of the intervention: An average of 142 IUDs were being inserted monthly at the 13 project sites by the project’s close in 2007, up more than 500% from a baseline average of 28 insertions per month. Despite district restructuring and transfer of skilled staff, increased annual levels of IUD provision were sustained for 30 months after the end of the project. Critical Issues in Reproductive Health: The Springer Series on Demographic Methods and Population Analysis, 2014, Volume 33, pages 243-264.
Available online in English

Kenya Preservice Training for Long-Acting and Permanent Methods of Contraception: Assessment Report
This nationwide assessment was designed to help Kenya’s Division of Reproductive Health and preservice training institutions improve efforts to prepare future health cadres to provide long-acting and permanent methods of contraception, by examining the current status of preservice education for these methods, the extent to which skills labs are able to provide students with quality practice, whether students are trained for the tasks they are expected to perform, and what can be done to improve preservice training for such methods.
Available in English (PDF, 1.4 MB)

Replication of the Community Mobilization for Postabortion Care (COMMPAC) Model in Naivasha District, Rift Valley Province, Kenya: An Evaluation Report (Report No. 9)
Maternal health complications, including those arising from unsafe abortion and miscarriage, are a leading cause of morbidity among women in Kenya. In response to this need, the RESPOND Project replicated an existing intervention known as Community Mobilization for Postabortion Care (COMMPAC), which aims to increase awareness and use of postabortion care (PAC) services and improve family planning, reproductive health, and maternal health outcomes. The intervention was carried out in three communities in Naivasha District, Rift Valley Province, over 18 months in 2010 and 2011. By the end of the evaluation, awareness about danger signs in early pregnancy was higher among women in the intervention areas than at comparison sites, women who experienced pregnancy complications in the intervention areas had an increased tendency to seek PAC services at dispensaries, and providers' confidence about offering PAC services increased.
Available in English (PDF, 1.9 MB)

Community Mobilization for Postabortion Care in Kenya: Baseline Evaluation Report (Report No. 2)
Maternal health complications, including those arising from unsafe abortion and miscarriage, are a leading cause of morbidity among women in Kenya. In response to this need, the RESPOND Project replicated an existing intervention known as Community Mobilization for Postabortion Care (COMMPAC), which aims to increase awareness and use of postabortion care (PAC) services and improve family planning, reproductive health, and maternal health outcomes. This report summarizes key results emerging from baseline data collection exercise carried out in 2010, to provide a benchmark against which the RESPOND intervention would be measured.
Available in English (PDF, 2 MB)

A Guide to Action for Community Mobilization and Empowerment Focused on Postabortion Complications: Facilitator’s Manual
This training manual uses the Community Action Cycle, a participatory problem-solving approach, to help community members learn to identify, prioritize, and solve the major problems relating to postabortion care in their communities.
Available in English (PDF, 2.2 MB)

Community Health Information Cards: Taking Action for our Health
This set of behavior change communication cards was developed for use by community health workers in educating clients about family planning, danger signs in pregnancy, the “three delays” and information on comprehensive postabortion care. The cards can be used to generate community dialogue and increase knowledge of family planning and postabortion care, while encouraging positive health-seeking behavior. (These cards were adapted from the Health Communication Partnership, Zambia, and were developed in close partnership with the Kenya Ministry of Health and the Division of Reproductive Health.)
Available in English (PDF, 3.1 MB)

To the Fullest Extent of Policy: Post-abortion Care in Kenya
27th. International Population Conference, August 26, 2013, Busan, Korea
Available in English (PDF, 3 Mb)

Community Engagement Holds Promise for Sustainable Postabortion Care in Kenya
International Seminar on Increasing Use of Reproductive Health Services through Community-based and Health Care Financing Programmes: Impact and Sustainability, August 23-25, 2012, Bangkok, Thailand
Available in English (PDF, 3.4 MB)

Expanding Access to Family Planning: Community Mobilization for Postabortion Care in Kenya
International Conference on Family Planning: Research and Best Practices, November 29–December 2, 2011, Dakar, Senegal
Available in English (PDF, 2.9 MB)

Strong as its weakest link: Holistic programming in action to increase FP service delivery
International Conference on Family Planning: Research and Best Practices, November 29–December 2, 2011, Dakar, Senegal
Available in English (PDF, 3.6 MB)

Community Mobilization around Postabortion Care and Integration of Family Planning
FP-MNCH-Nutrition Integration Technical Consultation, March 30, 2011
Available in English (PDF, 891 KB)

Expanding Access to FP through Community Mobilization for PAC
National Population Leaders Conference, Nairobi, Kenya, November 15, 2010
Available in English (PDF, 3.4 MB)

Holistic programming leads to sustained increase in IUD use in Kenya
Women Deliver Conference, June 8, 2010, Washington, D.C.
Available in English (PDF, 3.3 MB)

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Photo credits: M. Tuschman/EngenderHealth; A. Fiorente/EngenderHealth; C. Svingen/EngenderHealth.

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The RESPOND Project Digital Archive, Version 2.0