United States Government-Supported Family Planning and Reproductive Health Outreach in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: Lessons Learned and Recommendations.

IF 1.8 Q3 OBSTETRICS & GYNECOLOGY
Open access journal of contraception Pub Date : 2024-03-05 eCollection Date: 2024-01-01 DOI:10.2147/OAJC.S446263
Sahra Ibrahimi, Bamba Youssouf, Christine Potts, Alexandre Dumouza, Rani Duff, Landry-Serges Malaba, Bettina Brunner
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background: In response to limited contraception availability and a lack of knowledge about family planning (FP) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Integrated Health Program (IHP) in the DRC has been providing FP services, including outreach programs in the DRC. Our study aims to assess the FP outreach program by understanding the participants' perception of the campaign, its impact on their behavior, and their feedback regarding the campaign. Additionally, we draw insights from lessons learned and provide recommendations.

Methods: Between July and August 2022, we conducted 47 in-person participant interviews with women of reproductive age who used the outreach services provided by USAID IHP. Participants were randomly selected from Sud-Kivu, Kasai-Oriental, Haut-Katanga, and Tanganyika provinces. Consent and confidentiality were assured, and responses were recorded and transcribed in a Word document. We used Excel for data coding and analysis.

Results: The campaign reached 95.7% of women interviewed; however, some participants could not recall specific message details. Most respondents (89.3%) reported that the campaign motivated them to make FP decisions and change their behaviors. While 14.8% of women reported making FP decisions independently, 85.1% reported making the decision jointly with their partners. Our analysis resulted in three emerging themes: 1) Increased FP outreach and improved perception of FP, 2) Improved perceived behavioral changes due to FP outreach, and 3) The need for program improvement by including men and providing additional information about possible FP side effects.

Implications: Our study provides insights into how women receive information and whether they find it useful and share it with other women in their community. In particular, women's feedback about the FP outreach program and our recommendations can inform future policies and interventions.

美国政府支持的刚果民主共和国计划生育和生殖健康外联活动:经验教训与建议》。
背景:刚果民主共和国(刚果(金))的避孕药具供应有限,而且对计划生育(FP)缺乏了解,为此,美国国际开发署(USAID)在刚果(金)的综合卫生项目(IHP)一直在提供计划生育服务,包括在刚果(金)开展外展项目。我们的研究旨在通过了解参与者对宣传活动的看法、宣传活动对其行为的影响以及参与者对宣传活动的反馈意见,对计划生育宣传项目进行评估。此外,我们还将总结经验教训并提出建议:2022 年 7 月至 8 月间,我们对使用美国国际开发署国际水文计划提供的外展服务的育龄妇女进行了 47 次面对面访谈。访谈对象从南基伍省、东开赛省、上加丹加省和坦噶尼喀省随机抽取。我们确保了同意和保密性,并将回答记录和转录在 Word 文档中。我们使用 Excel 进行数据编码和分析:95.7% 的受访妇女都收到了宣传活动的信息,但有些受访者无法回忆起具体的信息细节。大多数受访者(89.3%)表示,宣传活动促使她们做出了计划生育决定并改变了行为。14.8%的妇女表示是独立做出计划生育决定的,85.1%的妇女表示是与伴侣共同做出决定的。我们的分析得出了三个新出现的主题:1)增加了 FP 宣传并提高了对 FP 的认识;2)由于 FP 宣传,提高了对行为改变的认识;3)需要通过将男性纳入其中并提供更多关于 FP 可能产生的副作用的信息来改进计划:我们的研究有助于了解妇女如何接收信息,以及她们是否认为这些信息有用并与社区中的其他妇女分享这些信息。特别是,妇女对 FP 宣传计划的反馈以及我们的建议可以为未来的政策和干预措施提供参考。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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