The INFO Project Blog

Laili Irani, a program specialist at the INFO Project, was recently tasked with researching new findings in reproductive health that came out since the publication of Family Planning: A Global Handbook for Providers. After going through hundreds of pages of research she had this to say about a recently released literature synthesis from the Cochrane Review.

One of the best sythesis I found on emergency contraception–a hot topic in reproductive health–was the recently published literature review from the Cochrane Review.

The review showed that mifepristone and levonorgestrel are very effective methods of emergency contraception with few adverse effects. Emergency contraception (EC) is a method of preventing pregnancy after unprotected sex. 81 randomized controlled clinical trials with 45,842 women were included in the Cochrane Review summary, with most trials conducted in China (70 out of 81 studies). The report notes that copper intrauterine devices can also be used 5 days after unprotected intercourse to prevent pregnancy , along with providing ongoing protection against future pregnancy if left in place. Read the rest of this entry »

If there’s ever a Mount Rushmore memorial built to honor heroes of family planning, the granite rock faces should be chisled with the features of community health workers like the women in pink, at left.

This woman, who works in a remote village in Rajasthan, India, promotes the use of family planning, educates families about HIV/AIDS, and encourages girls to go to school. The Veerni Project, a women’s empowerment group, trained her and other mostly-volunteer ”promoters” in each village.

I was reminded of these brave women, whose energetic work I observed while working with the Veerni Project a few years ago, in doing research for the upcoming issue of Population Reports, Elements of Successful Family Planning Programs. One key element of many successful programs? A mix of contraceptive service delivery points, facilitated by community agents like Veerni’s promoters.

In the case of CARE’s Extra Mile Initiative (EMI), which took place in eastern Madagascar–dubbed “the eight continent” for its rich biodiversity–community health agents overcame obstacles including flooded rivers and roadless districts to teach community members about methods to space their childrens’ births and limit family size. They were also tasked with training health center staff and local politicians. According to the Case Study, “the project’s very name indicated the additional effort CARE would need to invest just to reach the six communes–by motocycle, canoe and, mostly, on foot.” Luckily, the agents were cheerfully good-humored about the challenges, recounting storise like Mr. Boutobé’s:

In roadless Ambahoabe commune… the SDC [Social Development Committee] organized residents of the commune seat to smooth out nearly five miles of trail so that field agent Sebastian Boutobé could reach them by motorcycle, rather than on foot… “[My motorcycle] made such an impression,” [Sebastian] says, “that some people named their babies Sebastian in honor of the event.”

Others crossed flooded rivers, like Mac Samuel, who remembered at one point, while he was trying to reach a remote area, ”we were up to our necks.”
Read the rest of this entry »

An article in Ghana’s Public Agenda drew our attention today to a report from Population Reference Bureau (PRB) showing that demand for family planning services is growing around the world.

According to Toshiko Kaneda, co-author of the new data sheet Family Planning Worldwide, the increase is due to two key trends: the huge numbers of young people entering childbearing age in the developing world, and the increasing adoption of contraceptive use. Read the rest of this entry »

Recently, generous funding slotted towards the prevention and treatment of HIV have stolen some of the thunder once belonging to global family planning programs. The budget and quantity of often vertically-organized programs (for example, a program offering HIV voluntary counseling and testing with no information on family planning), have left many reproductive health advocates scrambling to demonstrate to decision makers how essential, not to mention cost effective, family planning is.

In the words of Dr. Robert Blum, who teaches in the Population, Family and Reproductive Health department of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health,

HIV has sucked not only all of the air out of the conversation, but also all the money…

Luckily, reproductive health advocates are mobilizing. The Global Exchange Network for Reproductive Health (GEN) is organizing a virtual discussion forum, “Using Leadership to Reposition Reproductive Health on the Public Health Agenda.” Funded by USAID, the forum will take place June 9-13 on the GEN Web site, in three languages (English, Spanish and French). Read the rest of this entry »

The Population Reports team has been busy, busy, between researching new findings on contraceptive methods, elements of successful family planning programs, and providing an updated guide to the highly effective but underutilized method of vasectomy.

Last covered by the Population Reports series in 1992, vasectomy research has now clarified many questions of eligibility criteria, optimal technique, post surgical follow-up and risk of long-term health concerns.

The topic came to light today in a blog post on the Elements of Family Planning Success Web site. Yogeeta Manglani, an INFO intern, posted on her blog about new male contraceptive options, which include hormonal therapy, testicular warming, transdermal gels and, fascinatingly, a vitamin A blocker. According to Yogeeta,

The most talked about methods are RISUG, an injectable compound that seems to prevent a man from fathering a child for up to 10 years and IVDs, which are sutured to the vas deferens.

Yogeeta, who cited a U.S. News & World Report article from April, writes that steady funding for research on male contraception is less than assured. This major roadblock means, in the words of Elaine Lissner, director of the San Francisco-based Male Contraception Information Project, no real progress can be made in the near future.

The problem, she added, is that research has been scattergun. ‘If we [continue to] do a study here, a study there, as we have for the last 20 years, it could take forever.’

In the mean time, don’t miss the Population Reports issue on vasectomy. Watch this site.