The INFO Project Blog

In light of INFO Project’s online discussion forum on female condom programming in low-resource settings, we thought it appropriate to highlight a recent Lancet Global Health Network’s article featuring a report on U.S. foreign policy’s role on the acquisition and promotion of female condoms in the prevention of HIV/AIDS. The Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE) recently released this report presenting an overview of the female condom, its role in the prevention of HIV, the challenges faced in making the contraceptive accessible, and a thorough explanation of U.S. and global policies that affect the use and promotion of the female condom.

The report summarizes a number of peer-reviewed articles and also features opinions from female condom experts and organizations. The article concludes with a number of evidence-based recommendations for U.S. and U.S. agencies’ support in the procurement, distribution and advocacy of female condoms and removal of existing barriers hindering women’s access to these potentially life-saving contraceptives.

Several INFO staffers journeyed to Washington to attend the two-day FP forum, Strengthening Family Planning Services through Operations Research: Lessons Learned and Future Directions, in the Reagan Rotunda building. The sessions, sponsored by FRONTIERS and ACCESS-FP, were chock full of new ideas. What to do, what to do? For starters, we thought we’d rattle off a a few choice tidbits.

Five Pithy Quotes

1. “The theme of this meeting might be the blurring of family planning” –Ian Askew, on the growing emphasis on integrating services with HIV/AIDS voluntary counseling and testing as well as maternal and child health services.
2. “If you know a woman who got pregnant when she was not meaning to, raise your hand [most hands up]. That’s why we are here today” –Catharine McKaig, ACCESS-FP/JHPIEGO, about why postpartum family planning is so important.
3. “And we are all family planning wallahs here,” –M.E. Khan, Population Council, India, saying that even he is skeptical that family planning should always have a role in antenatal care services.
4. “It’s the year of living dangerously” — Holly Blanchard, ACCESS-FP/JHPIEGO, about the first postpartum year, when providers may not prescribe a hormonal method because bleeding has not resumed. During this year, the risk of pregnancy is very high.
5. “They say LAM is an old wives tale”–Marcos Arevalo, Population Council, Mexico, about policymakers’ reluctance to endorse and support breastfeeding as a modern family planning method.

Four Surprising Statistics (or, why operations research matters!)

1. 61% of HIV-positive adolescents used no contraceptive method during first sex (Harriet Birungi, Population Council, Kenya, during a presentation on the family planning needs of HIV-positive youth).
2. Every year in Africa, 250,000 women die every year in childbirth (Annie Mwangi, Population Council, Kenya, explaining midwives’ crucial role in expanding service delivery).
3. Cost of IUD insertion right after delivery is as low as $2.14 (John Pile, ACQUIRE/EngenderHealth, on long-acting and permanent contraceptive methods during postpartum period).
4. Women using LAM were 20 times less likely to be pregnant 1 year after another pregnancy than women who had not been using the lactational amenorrhea method, or exclusive breastfeeding to prevent pregnancy after birth to baby’s six month birthday (Marcos Arevalo, Institute for Reproductive Health, Georgetown University). Read the rest of this entry »

I never knew that  so many useful surveys on contraceptive prevalence are out there.  While researching vasectomy prevalence for an upcoming issue of Population Reports I learned that the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) are not the only source for data on population, health and nutrition.   A vital source of family planning data can also be drawn from UNICEF’s Multiple Inidcator Cluster Survey (MICS).   The third round of MICS surveys has been completed and UNICEF provides data for certain countries where DHS data is not available. 

Read the rest of this entry »

Come visit INFO’s new Facebook page.

What is a Facebook page, you ask? It’s a recently-launched feature…

Every Facebook Page is a unique experience where users can become more deeply connected with your business or brand. Users can express their support by adding themselves as a fan, writing on your Wall, uploading photos, and joining other fans in discussion groups. You can send updates to your fans regularly — or just with special news or offers.

We uploaded some videos for you to watch–check out Dr. Robert Blum from the Bloomberg School of Public Health talking about adolescent reproductive health care–and put some photographs up. Check out our album and link in.

INFO’s newest social networking-equipped Web site, FP Success (to be developed into an issue of Population Reports called, “the Elements of Successful Family Planning Programs) includes more than 20 interviews with family planning program experts, as well as reproductive health researchers and educators.

Listen to Margaret Neuse, Emeritus Director of USAID’s Office of Population and Reproductive Health, talk about the importance of leadership, specifically USAID’s role in leading global efforts of family planning programming. Neuse stresses the importance of training local staff for leadership.

Become a member today to comment on her interview, contribute to a forum discussion, and create your own FP Success blog.