Mobilizing Religious Leaders & Faith Based Organizations in Africa to Scale Up Family Planning & Reproductive Health

Transcription

1 Mobilizing Religious Leaders & Faith Based Organizations in Africa to Scale Up Family Planning & Reproductive Health Author: Salwa Bitar Senior Scale-up Advisor, E2A Project 1/26/2016 Co-Authors: Three African Christian Health Associations Platform (ACHAP) Members

2 Objective The goal is to build evidence on new approaches to scale up FP/ RH best practices Test the effect of religious leaders involvement in family planning programs Facilitate adoption & scale-up of FP/RH- by building capacity of religious leaders, community & facilitybased providers Disseminate progress challenges & lessons learned for other faith-based organizations in Africa

3 Introduction E2A is a global, USAID-funded flagship FP/RH project with focus on youth, scale-up, and expanding method mix E2A partnered with the African Christian Health Association Platform (ACHAP), a faith-based network of 23 service-delivery organizations in Africa With grants and technical assistance to three faith-based service-delivery organizations in Kenya, Uganda & Ethiopia Christian Health Association of Kenya (CHAK) Uganda Protestant Medical Bureau (UPMB) The Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY)

4 Methodology

5 Methodology Total Number of Religious Leaders, CHWs & Clinics Mobilized by ACHAP Grants Country Religious Leaders CHWs Clinics/ Health Posts Facility Providers Uganda Ethiopia Kenya Total

6 Results Total number of participants attending religious leaders FP/RH meetings by gender (all five quarters) Uganda: 202,928 Ethiopia: 187,155 Kenya: 11,044 (all three quarters)

7 Results Total number of clients counselled on FP by CHWs and facility providers (all five quarters) Uganda: 43,252 Ethiopia: 259,276 Kenya: 34,712 (all three quarters)

8 Results Total number of new FP acceptors by type of FP method (all five quarters) Uganda: 6,555 Ethiopia: 23,998 Kenya: 25,146 (all three quarters)

9 Main Interventions Quality Improvement(QI) teams composed of facility based providers, CHWs and religious leaders. Ensure improved data quality for decision making and client focused interventions. FP compliance involving informed choice for clients with no coercion and no targets for the provider Team 9 Health Centers 45 Religious Leaders 54 CHWs Project focal person

10 Voices from the Field People in my community are excited that for once the health facility is introducing a family planning that their church endorses. - VHT I can now confidently talk to anyone about family planning. I wish the government would also use us when reaching out to the communities. If I pass on a messages to a congregation of 120 worshippers, everyone will believe me without doubt. - Imam Initially, I preached messages against use of modern FP methods, but this has changed with the ACHAP family planning project training for religious leaders. -SDA Pastor Some of my followers at church ask: How come the message is now different? This issue (FP) needs action and not mere prayers, I keep explaining. -Pastor

11 Scale up and Sustainability: What s Needed? Sufficient stock of FP commodities, including adding CycleBeads to national procurement tables Investment in capacity building for facility- and community-based providers Use of FP data for programmatic decision-making at the facility and central level

12 Lessons Learned Faith-based organizations offer 40% of all health services in Africa; a ready platform for FP. The three grantee organizations enhanced & scaled up services through efforts deeply rooted in communities. With financial support, data use for decision-making & engagement of religious leaders, there is vast potential to improve health outcomes in Africa. Networks such as ACHAP can be leveraged to disseminate and accelerate the spread of FP best practices.

13 Thank You!