Supporting Measurement and Replication Techniques for Family Planning High Impact Practices: An Assessment of the Scale, Reach, Quality and cost of Implementation in Burkina Faso

The Family Planning High Impact Practices (HIP) initiative is a multi-organization effort started in 2010 that aims to highlight evidence-based practices that are vetted by experts against specific criteria, and that, when scaled up, will maximize impact in family planning (FP). HIPs are identified based on demonstrated impact on contraceptive use, scalability, sustainability, cost-effectiveness, and applicability in a wide range of settings. The HIP initiative is supported by more than 30 organizations that play a key role in developing, reviewing, disseminating, and implementing HIPs. Since the initiative began in 2010, 20 HIP briefs which contain evidence of impact and implementation tips for each practice have been developed and shared. HIPs briefs are designed to increase the reach and impact of FP to more women, including adolescents, and men, by making evidence more available and easier to use, helping countries prioritize their investments, and, as a global FP community, building consensus around interventions that work. Each practice is classified as either a proven (sufficient evidence exists to recommend widespread implementation) or promising (some evidence exists that the practice could lead to impact, but more research is necessary to understand implementation experience and impact) across three categories of enabling environment, service delivery, and social and behavior change (SBC). HIP implementation occurs within programs and projects that can be supported by a range of international and local organizations—referred to as managing authorities in this protocol and inclusive of the Ministry of Health (MOH), international and local implementing partners and private agencies.

This work to measure HIP implementation and scale-up occurred in Mozambique, Nepal, and Uganda under the USAID-funded Research for Scalable Solutions (R4S) project and Nigeria and Burkina Faso under the Gates-funded SMART HIPs project. The approach for measuring scale, reach, quality and cost was replicated in each country. HIPs varied by country and covered immediate postpartum FP (IPPFP), community health workers (CHWs), post-abortion FP (PAFP), pharmacies and drug shops (PDS), and mass media (MM).

Two HIPs were implemented in Burkina Faso. These HIPs were IPPFP and MM. This study was conducted in 2 regions Burkina Faso – the Centre region (Ouagadougou), and the Haut-Bassins region. This assessment of scale, reach, quality and cost of HIP implementation used a cross-sectional, observational design with the following data sources:
• Key informant interviews (KIIs) with FP program managers and health promotion/SBC/Information, education and communication (IEC) program
managers at the Ministry of Health (MOH) and desk review of relevant national-level documents.
• KIIs with program managers at implementing partners and managing authorities and desk review of relevant records or documents.
• Analysis of service statistics (IPPFP) and MM plans.
• Readiness assessment, including a health facility questionnaire and a survey with FP providers (IPPFP) and a desk review of media plans and strategies of MM products.
• Activity-based costing.