Zambia Authorizes National Scale-up of Community Distribution of Injectable Contraceptives
September 23, 2016
In Zambia, APC supported authorization for the national scale-up of Community Health Workers’ (CHW) provision of injectables after years of advocacy, multi-sectoral leadership and completion of a successful pilot study. The APC grantee ChildFund’s successful project in Zambia was one of the key factors influencing the government’s decision to allow trained CHWs to provide injectable contraception. This authorization will give women, especially those in rural, hard-to-reach areas, access to a safe and reliable family planning method and help Zambia reach its goal of increasing the modern contraceptive rate to 58% by 2020. Expansion is already underway.
APC has been advocating for this issue since 2014, when it awarded a grant to ChildFund Zambia to support community-based access to injectables (CBA2I). Through this small grant, APC and ChildFund Zambia have been able to significantly contribute to the recent authorization for scale-up of CBA2I. With support from this grant, ChildFund Zambia served as a learning site for MOH and other partners to visit and learn from their public sector community-based family planning program. In addition, ChildFund provided technical assistance to the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Community Development Mother and Child Health and facilitated dialogue among stakeholders to advocate for scale-up. The authorization to scale-up this task-sharing approach throughout the country is a major milestone and will specifically help rural women with no dependable access to injectables.
In Zambia, APC supported authorization for the national scale-up of Community Health Workers’ (CHW) provision of injectables after years of advocacy, multi-sectoral leadership and completion of a successful pilot study. The APC grantee ChildFund’s successful project in Zambia was one of the key factors influencing the government’s decision to allow trained CHWs to provide injectable contraception. This authorization will give women, especially those in rural, hard-to-reach areas, access to a safe and reliable family planning method and help Zambia reach its goal of increasing the modern contraceptive rate to 58% by 2020. Expansion is already underway.
APC has been advocating for this issue since 2014, when it awarded a grant to ChildFund Zambia to support community-based access to injectables (CBA2I). Through this small grant, APC and ChildFund Zambia have been able to significantly contribute to the recent authorization for scale-up of CBA2I. With support from this grant, ChildFund Zambia served as a learning site for MOH and other partners to visit and learn from their public sector community-based family planning program. In addition, ChildFund provided technical assistance to the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Community Development Mother and Child Health and facilitated dialogue among stakeholders to advocate for scale-up. The authorization to scale-up this task-sharing approach throughout the country is a major milestone and will specifically help rural women with no dependable access to injectables.