Family Planning

Family planning (FP) helps couples and individuals achieve the family size they desire, in a timeframe that is right for them. To HC3, this meant ensuring key populations have the right information, in a format that makes FP decision-making easier. It meant communicating about contraceptive methods to assure pregnancies are anticipated and timed to reduce risk to mother and baby. It meant influencing social norms that prevent women and their partners from accessing FP assistance. It meant engaging FP stakeholders and practitioners around the world to implement FP programs strategically today for an improved tomorrow.

Through its global activities, HC3 created evidence-driven, adaptable tools to strengthen FP social and behavior change communication (SBCC) capacity among FP program managers. In its country programs, HC3 worked on the ground level to foster FP use and acceptance. In Nepal, HC3 launched a campaign to increase modern FP method use and reduce unmet need among priority populations. In Nigeria, HC3 worked with the government to implement a strategic plan to increase contraceptive prevalence rates and positively shift FP norms. In Angola, HC3 collaborated with the Ministry of Health to develop a communication program to support women and their partners to carefully plan their families.

HC3 used SBCC to:

• Improve the sexual and reproductive health of one of the world’s fastest-growing populations: youth
• Revitalize conversation around healthy timing and spacing of pregnancies for high-risk groups like women of advanced maternal age, or who have five children or more
• Strengthen the capacity of local organizations to identify and effectively address crucial FP barriers in their country
• Provide strategic communication frameworks around emerging FP topics, such as hormonal contraception and HIV
• Enhance providers’ ability to properly discuss and sensitively counsel clients on a range FP methods and increase the demand for and correct use of FP methods—particularly long-acting contraceptives for youth
• Equip and encourage women and couples to make family planning choices that are right for them
• Increase understanding of the role gender transformation plays in FP behavior change and build capacity to engage men and boys as both partners and FP clients
• Collect the evidence to show how SBCC contributes to stronger family planning outcomes

Explore the innovative tools we’ve developed to improve FP practices and outcomes worldwide.