The INFO Project Blog

Two months ago I landed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to carry out the Africa-based segment of the Elements of Family Planning Success Project. Activities are now in full swing! There is a growing interest in knowledge management in this country and region, so this project is very timely. In addition, social networking sites, such as African Path Village are gaining in popularity.

I’ve demonstrated the FP Success Web site to several Ethiopian colleagues, including the staff of the Ethiopian AIDS Resource Center and members of the Implementing Best Practices (IBP) Initiative’s Ethiopia Country Team.

I’m excited to be involved with both IBP activities in Ethiopia and the FP Success Project and hope to channel the two efforts to work together. In April I accompanied Suzanne Reier and Dr. Abonesh Hailemariam, two colleagues working on IBP from the WHO, to the northern region of Tigray. There we met with representatives from the IBP partner organizations USAID/DELIVER, Pathfinder, the Relief Society of Tigray (REST), and the Regional Health Bureau. This team had previously identified that logistics and contraceptive supply was an issue in this region, and are now working together to address this problem. While touring some of the local clinics we had the opportunity to meet with some of the region’s Health Extension Workers who talked about their experiences with community outreach. This trip provided a great snapshot of the family planning situation in rural Ethiopia and what local organizations are doing to work towards family planning success.

I have also started working on the Population Reports issue on this topic. This report will be unique in that it will combines opinions, lessons learned, best practices from FP programmers around the world with the latest evidence-based research. The report, along with an e-learning course, will be available in September, so stay tuned!

What else has INFO been up to in Africa? Two weeks ago I attended the conference “Investing in Young People’s Health and Development: Research that Improves Policies and Programs” in Abuja, Nigeria. At the conference I presented “Using Knowledge Management to Improve Reproductive Health Programs for Young People,” which focused on how the INFO Project uses the Knowledge Management principles to develop information products and services to “get the right knowledge to the right people at the right time.”

While I was in Nigeria I had the opportunity to interview three family planning professionals for the FP Success Web site. Bright Ekweremadu, Managing Director of Nigeria’s Society for Family Health spoke about effective communication and outreach strategies. I also conducted two interviews with Pathfinder staff: Mike Egboh, the Pathfinder Nigeria Country Director, spoke about leadership and Dr. Habib Sadauki, Senior FP/RH Advisor, weighed in on integrated programs.

We have several interviews planned for Ethiopia, including Dr. Abonesh Hailemariam of WHO and Dr. Gelila Kidane, Country Director for EngenderHealth.

Look for these interviews soon on www.fpsuccess.org!

Join colleagues around the world in an online discussion forum from April 23 - May 2, 2008. Health professionals will share their experiences with female condoms in diverse service delivery settings. This forum will be an opportunity to review the latest guidance on female condoms featured in Family Planning: A Global Handbook for Providers and exchange information and experiences with colleagues who are working to provide high-quality family planning services.

Register for free

The discussion will be guided by the interest of the participants. Topics will include integration of female condoms into family planning and HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment programs, opportunities for male involvement, strategies for encouraging commitment and participation of governments, donor agencies and civil society in female condom programming, as well as practical guidance related to female condom use and counseling. Read the rest of this entry »

The debate on elements of successful family planning programs continues on the Implementing Best Practices Knowledge Gateway.

During a rousing debate over the weekend, a participant weighed in from India on logistical problems noting that a surplus of supplies can meet an untimely end if there is no storage space.

I have myself seen health workers dumping condoms in the village well or burning them, when they were supplied with quantities which were not required by the users.

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Family Health Internation (FHI) research chief Ward Cates is quoted in a Washington Post article by Craig Timberg saying that birth control is Africa’s “best-kept secret” for preventing the transmission of HIV.

173,000 HIV-infected births each year are averted with contraception, and tens of thousands of more infections could be reliably and less expensively prevented by improving access to birth control in Africa.

Timberg interviews a 27 year-old widow who, after being diagnosed with HIV in 2004, said she “wanted to be done” with childbearing.

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Next Monday is the kick-off for INFO’s On-line Discussion Forum: Elements of Successful Family Planning Programs. The forum, which will run from December 10 through December 21, will address questions such as,

What makes a family planning program succeed? How has your program moved toward success? What are the lessons learned?

This international forum will discuss how family planning programs succeed and review relevant research and experience. Join us starting December 10 to share your experience and knowledge with colleagues around the world! (Before registering, please complete the short survey here)

Register now for the forum here.

This online discussion and survey is sponsored by the INFO Project, based at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Communication Programs in collaboration with the Implementing Best Practices (IBP) in Reproductive Health Initiative and WHO/RHR.