Madagascar

Family Planning Integration (2006 - 2008)


With support from the Flexible Fund, MCDI implemented a three-year family planning integration project that targeted the province of Fianarantsoa in southern Madagascar, also known as "Le Grand Sud." The project focused specifically on the districts Ihosy, Iakora, and Ivohibe. These districts are located south of the forest corridor of Andringitra, a priority conservation area for USAID and donors such as the African Development Bank (AfDB). MCDI integrated the project's family planning services into the AfDB-funded three-year Water and Sanitation Project that MCDI was carrying out in the same districts.


The main objectives of the FP project were to:

  1. Provide 221,808 community members with better access to quality family planning services
  2. Improve the use of family planning services
  3. Improve family planning and reproductive health practices

To reach these objectives, MCDI adopted the following strategies:

  1. Providing better and increased access to quality family planning services including
    1. Opening FP services at basic health centers (BHCs)
    2. Implementing a community-based contraceptive/condom distribution (CBD) program
    3. Developing the capacities of formal and informal health care providers at the BHC and the community level
    4. Improving the health support system

  2. Improving the knowledge of, interest in, and use of family planning services by
    1. Implementing a behavior-change communication (BCC) strategy by using the VISA (Visiting, Identifying, Sensitizing and Accompanying) approach, mass media and community health volunteers (CHVs)
    2. Facilitating community mobilization based on the "Champion Community" approach
    3. Developing resources to support BCC

  3. Ensuring the sustainability of family planning interventions by
    1. Strengthening the capacity of local partner Voahary Salama to conduct outreach family-planning interventions, which included the promotion of HIV/AIDS/STI prevention and STI screening
    2. Integrating family planning interventions with MCDI's AfDB-funded Water and Sanitation Project
    3. Collaborating with PSI to support and sustain the provision of contraceptives and related drugs through social marketing at community and BHC levels
    4. Strengthening the skills of MoH staff

MCDI also built upon community mobilization and training techniques learned during our USAID-funded Child Survival Project in the Toliara Province. Key program messages on family planning were carried out with those developed by the Ministry of Health and the National IEC task force. This project benefited from collaboration with the SantéNet project and incorporated similar strategies such as the VISA mother approach and "Champion Communities."

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