Project Lead(s): Jennifer Schechter
Issue
In Togo, women face significant barriers to accessing family planning resources. Low uptake of contraceptives has contributed to high rates of maternal mortality and unintended pregnancy.
The Togolese Government is committed to raising the contraceptive coverage rate to 24.3%; however, the national rate of 18% falls significantly short of this target and remains as low as 4% in rural areas of the country.
Current barriers to family planning resources include high costs, supply chain gaps, poor quality of care, and pervasive misconceptions of contraceptives at the community level.
Solution
Integrate Health (formerly ‘Hope Through Health’) partnered with the Togolese Ministry of Health (MoH) to strengthen RMNCH primary care and provide quality family planning services.
At the community level, Integrate Health trained and equipped local women as Community Health Workers (CHWs) to effectively educate and enroll women into potentially life changing family planning programs.
At the clinic level, Integrate Health improved resource supply by: ensuring an effective and consistent supply chain for family planning commodities, improving supply chain management through ongoing training, eliminating point of care user fees to remove financial barriers to access, and training clinical staff through an ongoing mentorship program to ensure delivery of high-quality, patient-centered care for women and girls.
Integrate Health piloted this bold new service delivery model in four undeserved rural communities in northern Togo.
Outcome
Integrate Health found their delivery of a low-cost, integrated primary care model can strengthen public health systems and ensure quality RMNCH services are provided to undeserved communities.
37 CHWs and 21 public health center staff were trained to provide family planning services. These health workers provided family planning education to 6,260 women and 2,052 men, resulting in 742 women newly adopting a family planning method.
Contraceptive coverage rate in northern rural communities increased from as low as 4% at baseline to 23%. Integrate Health improved supply-chain management and reduced fees associated with clinical care.
Finally, Integrate Health has signed a partnership agreement with Togo’s MoH to scale their project nationally to meet the country’s health goals.
The organization has gained $100,000 from T&J Meyer Family Foundation and Crown Family Philanthropies to scale their delivery to 21 new (25 total) clinics across 4 new (5 total) districts, serving a total population of 240,000 people by 2021.