The Norwegian Government, through the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs signed a 3-year grant agreement in July, 2018 with UNFPA for a $3m project to expand access to sexual and reproductive health and rights services. ARFH is implementing the UNFPA supported Integrated approach to empowering adolescent girls and women in two States of Nigeria through access to Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights project as the Community and Health Facility Service Delivery of Family Planning Service Including DMPA-SC/Self Injection Project (CHEFDI) Project. The project is aimed at improving the access of adolescents and women of reproductive age to Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) services including family planning in Gombe & Akwa-Ibom states from 2018 – 2021.
The Subcutaneous Depot Medroxy-progesterone Acetate (DMPA-SC) Injection offers a self-injection opportunity for women, which is particularly attractive because it eliminates the arduous clinic visits that a woman faces to access contraceptive methods. DMPA-SC Injection is a single dose, prefilled all-in-one presentation with reduced composition of the active constituent – 104mg of DMPA compared to 150mg in the intramuscular option. The simplicity of use of DMPA-SC injection makes the addition to contraceptive method mix easier to accept by all stakeholders, and makes it easy for the lower-level health care workers to use. It has been found to be desirable and in high demand in the northern part of the country where the bulk of the health workers are CHEWs. It has a simplified injection procedure and requires simpler, shorter training.
It is expected that the successful implementation of the project reduce maternal and child mortality rates in the benefiting states, increase awareness and uptake of family planning services, improve quality of family planning services, reduce unmet need for family planning services and increase the country’s contraceptive prevalence rate.
PROJECT GOAL:
To improve access of adolescents and women of reproductive age to Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) services including family planning in the targeted states (Gombe & Akwa-Ibom) in Nigeria.
BROAD OBJECTIVES:
- By 2021, 100,000 women of reproductive age have improved availability of quality integrated Sexual and Reproductive Health Services and information including family planning in selected Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Gombe and Akwa Ibom States.
- By 2021, 9,000 adolescent girls have increased access to sexual reproductive health information and life skills in selected LGAs in Gombe State.
- By 2021, the operational capacities of national partners and community based organizations are strengthened to address social norms in order to improve access to SRH services and prevention of child marriage.
SUB OBJECTIVES
- To contribute to improving availability of quality sexual and reproductive health services including family planning for adolescent girls and women of reproductive ages
- To increase human resources for health to deliver quality SRH/family planning services delivery including LARC and DMPA-SC
- To strengthen community and health-facility linkage/referral for SRH/family planning services
- To increase by 40% access and uptake of FP methods/health information for adolescent/young girls in selected states
- To expand DMPA-SC contraceptive service delivery options through self-injection approach
KEY PROJECT ACTIVITIES
The following activities will be conducted to ensure successful implementation of the project
- Advocacy visit to key stakeholders in project state: State Ministry of Health, Ministry of Economic Development, Local Government Service Commission/SPHCDA, Community leaders and other relevant key Stakeholders
- Capacity building & strengthening on family planning including LARC& DMPA/SC: This will comprise Facility Based Family Planning service providers as well as community-based providers-(CHEWs) in project LGAs
- DMPA-SC/ Self –Injection at the health facilities and the communities
- Family Planning Service delivery
- Mobilization/Demand Generation for wide range of FP method mix
- Continuous Community & Facility Based Service Delivery Monitoring and Supervision
- Data Quality Assurance/Supervision, Quality improvement System strengthening (QISS). This helps to optimize the use of family planning data to guide policy and decision on family planning as well as guide project implementation.
- Referral and linkages: the project will strengthen existing referral systems with proximal PHCs to ensure that clients desirous of methods such as injectables, IUDs, and implants are appropriately referred to health facilities to trained providers.