Kenya

The RESPOND Project's work in Kenya is focused on  implementing and evaluating the Community Postabortion Care (COMMPAC) model. Efforts to revitalize a previous activity that began under The ACQUIRE Project are being done in Nakuru District, while the replication and formal evaluation is being conducted in Naivasha District. During 2011-2012, RESPOND will complete the implementation phase in the intervention districts in Naivasha, will conduct an endline survey, and will return to the three control units to implement the full intervention.

RESPOND staff will continue to carry out activities in Kenya for the ongoing mentoring of the Community Health Extension Workers (CHEWS) and Community Health Workers (CHWs) for the first half of the year. Subsequently, the Population Council will field the endline survey and will collect information using qualitative instruments. RESPOND will work in close partnership with the District Medical Officer of Health and District Health Management Team in Naivasha and Nakuru, while maintaining linkages with the Division of Reproductive Health at the central level, to ensure that lessons learned will be shared across Kenya and with the Ministry of Health (MOH) in particular, so they may consider scaling up the work in other districts. Ongoing collaboration with the APHIAplus projects will also continue, in the hope that they are able to scale up and support the work in future years across other districts. Dissemination is planned in Kenya with the MOH and all relevant stakeholders, including USAID/Kenya and USAID/Washington.

Results will be used to:

• Document program approaches
• Evaluate the effects of engaging communities in postabortion care (PAC)
• Develop recommendations for scale-up thatensure sustainabilityand close linkages with health services

Because of the rigor of the study design, data may also be useful to demonstrate this model as a best or high-impact practice to USAID/Washington. changes in the availability and use of PAC and family planning services at selected health facilities will be measured, as will the effect of the COMMPAC model at increasing community knowledge of complications related to unplanned pregnancy, miscarriage, and unsafe abortion. Results are expected to contribute to global knowledge and add to the body of evidence in support of community-level interventions that address PAC.