Expanding Contraceptive Choice: Webinar on Hormonal Injectables

February 15, 2018

Some 214 million women of reproductive age in developing regions who want to avoid pregnancy are not using a modern contraceptive method. Evidence suggests that expanding method choice, as well as providing better information about available methods, can improve family planning access for these girls and women.

The Advancing Partners & Communities project, in collaboration with Family Planning 2020, the Implementing Best Practices initiative, and USAID's Office of Population and Reproductive Health, hosted a webinar series to share information about various family planning methods.

The third webinar in this series: Hormonal Injectables, was on Thursday, February 15th, 2018, from 9:00–10:00 A.M. EST.

Jeff Spieler, independent consultant; Jennifer Drake of PATH; and Fred Mubiru of FHI 360 discussed hormonal injectables and their in-country and programmatic experiences.

Webinars on intrauterine devices and long-acting permanent methods will be held in the coming months.

The webinar took place on Adobe Connect. A link to the webinar was distributed to all registrants prior to the webinar.

Meet the Speakers

Jeff Spieler

Jeff Spieler has 45 years of experience working internationally on contraceptive research and development, family planning and reproductive health. In 2014, he retired as a Senior Technical Advisor for Science and Technology in Population and Reproductive Health (PRH) at USAID. Prior to his official retirement from USAID, he was the Science Advisor, the Chief of the Research, Technology and Utilization Division and the Senior Biomedical Scientist at USAID PRH. Jeff also spent 11 years as a Scientist in the Special Programme of Research, Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction at the World Health Organization and six years as a bench researcher at Lederle Laboratories. Jeff has a B.Sc. in Zoology from the University of Florida, a M.Sc. in Zoological Sciences and Reproductive Biology from Rutgers University, and was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Philosophy in Public Service from the University of Florida in 2002.

Jennifer Drake, MPH

Jennifer Drake is the director of PATH’s Advancing Contraceptive Options portfolio, which includes several projects to increase access to the novel injectable contraceptive subcutaneous DMPA (DMPA-SC) in the context of a full method mix, as well as efforts to design women-centered program approaches to contraceptive self-injection. Jennifer has nearly 15 years of experience in global reproductive health.

Frederick Mubiru, MSc

Frederick Mubiru of FHI 360 Uganda is a Project Manager for Advancing Partners & Communities. He is a research and evaluation specialist with over 10 years of experience in project management. He has implemented action research and monitoring and evaluation projects in development and emergency response organizations that address reproductive health/family planning, gender, and HIV/AIDS. Frederick holds an MSc in Population and Reproductive Health Studies from Makerere University, Kampala and holds the pioneer Post Graduate Diploma in Development Evaluation Studies from Uganda Christian University, Mukono. He is also a certified Project Management Professional with PMD Pro/Inside NGO.

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