Family planning
I have carried out a substantial amount of work on family planning, focusing upon both the socio-cultural challenges and health systems barriers associated with addressing unmet need. I have done extensive work on public-private partnerships using Total Market Approaches, subsidies and franchising. I have particular experience in family planning and reproductive health service provision in emergency settings and significant expertise with programmes serving young people (click here for more details about my work on adolescent reproductive health). My work with FP2020 has assessed the causes and consequences of contraceptive discontinuation and reviewed ways of supporting women's sustained use. I am mindful of how programmes may need to reflect clandestine use in low prevalence settings and in the face of male disapproval. In addition, I have looked at the ways in which human resources influence service provision, especially of LARCs, and have assessed the impact of task-shifting on method mix and uptake.
Programmes
- December 2021 - Global Innovation Fund: Investment Assessment Report of GFI's support of Development Media International's program around radio broadcasts to improve family planning uptake in Burkina Faso. The assessment looked at the content and impact of the investment, the enabling environment to facilitate its efficacy together with cost-effectiveness.
- September 2021 - Caroline Population Center, UNC/Institut Supérieur des Sciences de la Population (ISSP), Ouagadougou: Technical assistance for qualitative data collection and analysis for the Gates-funded 'Full Access, Full Choice' study of the perceived quality of family planning services in Burkina Faso and its influence on use.
- May 2021 - WHO, Accelerator Project: Review of the content, approaches and impact of National Family Planning Campaigns in Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali and Niger.
- October 2020 - USAID /Washington DC (Office of Family Planning and Reproductive Health): Writer of a brief on 'Individual-level Social and Behavior Change' for the High Impact Practices in Family Planning (HIP) series - a set of evidence-based family planning approaches vetted by the HIP Technical Advisory Group.
- June - November 2018 Team Leader - Evaluation of USAID's 'Support to International Family Planning Organizations' program (SIFPO 2). The evaluation looked at SIFPO 2 core-funded activities to Marie Stopes International, Population Services International and the International Planned Parenthood Federation to strengthen systems and develop and disseminate tools. Fieldwork was carried out in Uganda and Malawi and assessed issues such as sustainability and the leveraging of domestic financing.
- December 2017 - Care, USA : Analysis of qualitative and programmatic data relating to family planning and reproductive health service provision in Goma, DRC as part of the Supporting Access to Family Planning and Post-Abortion Care (SAFPAC) project in emergency settings.
- December 2015 - The Population Council/FP2020: Commissioned to write a review paper on for FP2020's 'Performance, Monitoring and Evidence Working Group' on 'Understanding Contraceptive Discontinuation'. Reasons for the phenomenon were explored including those relating to stockouts, provider bias, fears of side-effects, rumours and male disapproval. Particular attention was paid to the little understood notions of ambivalence, intentionality and motivation with regard to discontinuation.
- March 2015 - IPPF/SPRINT: Midterm Review of the DFAT-funded SPRINT programme which seeks to increase timely access among crisis-affected populations to the Minimum Initial Service Package (MISP) for Reproductive Health. I visited the SPRINT hub in Delhi, India and continued to Bangladesh where I worked with the Family Planning Association of Bangladesh to prepare a case study of the SPRINT intervention in response to recent floods.
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