HTSP I-Kit Materials Released for Adaptation and Use

In Western nations today, it’s not uncommon for women to delay having children to pursue school, professional or personal goals. Anecdotal evidence shows that this trend is gaining momentum in communities in some Sub-Saharan Africa countries as well.

In honor of International Women’s Day 2017 and its theme “Women in the World of Work,” HC3 underlines its belief that women deserve the right to balance their professional and other goals with their desire to have children – and to understand the health benefits and risks that come with delaying pregnancy and childbirth until after adolescence and young adulthood.

In 2016, HC3 launched its Healthy Timing and Spacing of Pregnancies (HTSP) Implementation Kit (I-Kit), which focuses exclusively on addressing advanced maternal age (AMA) and high-parity (HP) pregnancies through social and behavior change communication (SBCC). The I-Kit, available in French and English, includes guidance for program managers on including AMA and HP pregnancy information in their project work and gives examples of seven communication materials to address these perilous pregnancy categories.

The I-Kit was created with family planning and maternal and child health program managers in mind and is meant to be adapted. To this end, HC3 is making available the editable files (in either Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign or Microsoft Word) for each of these materials. Accessing the files is easy:

1. Request the desired materials through a simple online form, in English or French.
2. Receive the files from HC3 once the request is approved.
3. Jump in and tailor the materials to your project and community.

When requesting the materials, organizations have two options:

• Use the materials as-is, making no changes to the content (e.g. text and images), but adding project/partner logos, or
• Adapt the materials, making changes to the content (e.g. text and images) according to local context and needs by removing the USAID and HC3 logos and replacing the logos with a short citation to the original materials.

We are thrilled to share these tools, but are most eager to see how they will be used beyond the HC3 project to improve the lives of women who may experience AMA or HP pregnancies. Please share this announcement among your relevant Anglophone and Francophone networks. For any questions, contact Erin Portillo.