Originally appearing on USAID's Impact Blog during their focus on global health throughout the month of May and featuring the important role of mothers and partnerships May 11-17, this post by Ruwaida Salem and Stephen Goldstein highlights the importance of family planniing in reducing maternal mortality and the innovative partnerships that maximize USAID's investment to achieve greater impact.

With memories of Mother’s Day in the U.S. this past weekend still fresh in the mind—family gatherings, celebrations, festive meals, presents, flowers, and more—attention turns to the estimated 287,000 maternal deaths that occur each year, mostly in developing countries.

A mother and child attend a family planning counseling session in Chaibasa, India.

© 2012 Jennifer Applegate, Courtesy of Photoshare

During this week, USAID is focusing on mothers and on how maternal health is critical to achieving its global health goals. Partnerships between the private sector and NGOs, foundations, associations, and others have allowed USAID to maximize its health impact around the world.

The death of a mother profoundly affects the health and well-being of her children. When a mother dies, her children are less likely to survive. If a mother dies in childbirth, her child is 10 times more likely to die before reaching age one.

While maternal mortality remains unacceptably high throughout the developing world, a number of USAID-assisted countries have achieved significant reductions in maternal deaths from pregnancy-related causes. For example, several countries have already achieved Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 5 (PDF)—reducing maternal mortality by three-quarters between 1990 and 2015—including the following countries in which USAID works:

• Romania (achieved an 84% reduction, from 170 to 27 maternal deaths per 100,000 live birth)
• Equitorial Guinea (81% reduction, from 1,200 to 240 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births)
• Nepal (78% reduction, from 770 to 170 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births)
• Vietnam (76% reduction, from 240 to 59 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births)

Several countries are also on track to achieving MDG 5, including Bangladesh (with a 5.9% average annual decline in maternal mortality) and Egypt (6% annual decline).

Nevertheless, even with the global decline of maternal mortality by 47% since 1990, the level is far short of the 2015 target and developing regions still have maternal mortality rates 15 times higher than developed regions.

Family Planning 101 is one of the most popular eLearning courses housed at the Global Health eLearning Center, with over 65,419 learners subscribed thus far!

 

Modinat Bamidele, a family planning client, attends a counseling session with a service provider at Orolodo primary health centre in Omuaran township in Nigeria’s central state of Kwara.

© 2012 Akintunde Akinleye/NURHI, Courtesy of Photoshare

As an immigrant from Kenya, I have seen the negative effects that lack of family planning (FP) can have on women and their families. I have lost nieces and nephews due to ill-timed births and close friends as a result of early childbearing. If these individuals had access to information on family planning services, I believe that they would be alive today. 

Being indelibly affected by these unwarranted deaths, I decided to channel my inner fury into something actionable and decided to pursue public health in graduate school. I have since taken a number of family planning online courses, but to date, none has had more real-life examples based on behavior change communication theories than the Family Planning 101 eLearning Course. This course provides relevant and up-to-date information on voluntary FP programs and services. It is very well designed and would be a good tool for individuals to gain the knowledge needed to conduct basic family planning education. Topics included in the course are:

1. Rationale for voluntary family planning;
2. Family planning method considerations;
3. Short-acting contraceptive methods;
4. Long-acting and permanent contraceptive methods;
5. Special needs;
6. Quality and access;
7. Special delivery tools; and
8. Contraceptive security.
   

2013 has already brought many exciting changes for the reproductive health community, including the Institute for Reproductive Health at Georgetown University (IRH). But this year also means the close of our six-year USAID-funded project focused on Fertility Awareness-based Methods (FAM).

Georgetown University's Institute for Reproductive Health's new website

It was in the spirit of continued scale-up that we asked ourselves what we could do to better preserve our projects’ legacies and encourage partners to carry on the work of expanding family planning options globally, including FAM. Re-evaluating the impact of our most globally-accessible housing place for this legacy—our website—was one solution.

Today, we value websites as a place to share messages related to our mission and what we’re doing in the world. We like inviting people to engage with our work and implement our strategies, curriculum, best practices, etc. by visiting our website to learn more. Having this portal for downloadable resources and materials has been amazing for our global health community. It has taken collaboration and information-sharing to the next level of “instant communication.”

Although much progress has been made in the fight against HIV/AIDS, we still have more work and learning to do.

We have learned over the last decade that HIV prevention efforts must be targeted. Even in countries where there is a general epidemic, interventions for key populations are critical and could have a significant impact on the epidemic as a whole.[1]

For this reason, it’s important to learn more about programming best practices for key populations as well as develop robust systems to effectively monitor and evaluate these programs.

If you are interested in learning more, check out two new eLearning courses on key populations: Designing HIV Prevention Programs for Key Populations and M&E Guidelines for Sex Workers, Men Who Have Sex With Men, & Transgender Populations-National Level.

The Designing HIV Prevention Programs for Key Populations course on the Global Health eLearning Center

The Designing HIV Prevention Programs for Key Populations course provides field staff and country implementing partners with best practices in designing and implementing a comprehensive package of HIV services that meet the specific needs and circumstances of different population sub-groups.

Key populations are distinct sub-groups within the general population who are at higher risk of exposure to HIV, who engage in highly stigmatized behaviors and who are often marginalized in their own societies and thus have reduced access to health care and other public services.