Program Management

Management of IUD programs, as with any other health care program, involves organizing the program to ensure its smooth operation. This section of the IUD Toolkit includes information to help family planning program managers fulfill the essential management functions of an IUD program, including information on:

Programming Models and Approaches

Introducing, Reintroducing, or Revitalizing IUDs

Organizing Work

Cost Considerations

Supervision

Monitoring & Evaluation

Quality Considerations

Scaling Up

Have a suggested resource or comment about this section? Please visit our discussion board.

Programming Models and Approaches

Introducing, Reintroducing, or Revitalizing IUDs

    No Date | ACQUIRE Project/EngenderHealth | 52 slides
    This PowerPoint presentation provides a template for guiding a local program to conduct its own stakeholder meeting around revitalizing the IUD.
    2006 | Maximizing Access and Quality (MAQ) Initiative
    This brief outlines the advantages of providing IUD services to postpartum women and to women who have just had an abortion. It also gives an overview of programmatic considerations for providing high-quality postpartum IUD services, including special counseling and insertion training for IUD providers.
    2006 | Maximizing Access and Quality (MAQ) Initiative
    This document discusses some of the key factors related to the providers and their provision of IUDs.  It addresses some ideas behind what motivates and discourages providers about IUDs and how to address these issues.
    2005 | Centre for Development and Population Activities [CEDPA]
    The government of India, as part of its continual efforts to improve the quality of family planning services, has replaced the CuT-200B with the Cu-T380A in its National program due to the distinct advantages of the CuT-380A.  This book, as a result of collaboration between CEDPA India and FHI, is intended to orient NGO staff to the advantages of the CuT-380A in efforts to have them promote it in the National Family Welfare Programme in India.
    2005 | ACQUIRE Project/EngenderHealth | 62 p
    A performance needs assessment actively involves stakeholders in clarifying their expectations and program goals for IUD revitalization within an overall family planning program followed by objectively assessing current IUD program performance (at system, provider, and client/community levels), in order to identify the performance gaps, their root causes and appropriate solutions. This document contains tools, developed by the ACQUIRE Project, to assist programs to conduct their own performance needs assessment regarding IUDs.
    2005 | ACQUIRE Project/EngenderHealth | 41 slides
    This PowerPoint presentation provides a template for guiding a discussion surrounding how to select appropriate interventions to improve utilization of the IUD using outcomes from performance needs assessments.

Organizing Work

    2005 | Maximizing Access and Quality (MAQ) Initiative | 3 p
    This document discusses some of the key issues to consider when developing a work flow for provision of IUDs. 
      Download Word Version Download PDF Version
      2006 | The Capacity Project | 4 p
      Reorganizing skills among cadres is called task shifting (moving skills from one cadre to another) or task sharing (increasing the number of cadres able to perform a skill). Based on a review of the literature and country examples, the brief describes why task shifting is important and highlights some key steps in planning for, developing, and supporting cadres involved in task shifting. The guidance in this brief can be applied to task sharing for IUD programs, which is needed to meet the high demand demonstrated by IUD programs.

    Cost Considerations

      2006 | Maximizing Access and Quality (MAQ) Initiative | 4 p
      This document discusses a number of ways in which family planning programs can provide IUD services at modest cost per client, including training a core group of IUD providers; permitting trained allied health workers to provide IUD services; eliminating the need for routine laboratory tests before IUD insertion; using high-level disinfection to process used instruments; using new or clean examination gloves during IUD insertion and removal; eliminating unnecessary routine follow-up visits; and offering immediate postpartum services.
      2009 | Private Sector Partnerships for Better Health (PSP-One) | 68 p
      This report looks at two key questions relevant to increasing availability of long-acting and permanent methods (LA/PMs) worldwide: (1) How can LA/PMs, which require trained providers and clinical settings for administration, be made more widely accessible even in rural or other low-resource settings? and (2) How can sustainable LA/PM provision be achieved? Costs of providing IUDs compared with other methods are provided from a number of countries. 
      2008 | Abt Associates Inc., Private Sector Partnerships-One [PSP-One] | 2 p
      This brief discusses the findings of a Private Sector Partnerships-One analysis of DHS data from four countries (Bolivia, Colombia, Egypt, and Peru) on IUD use, source, and ability to pay. Request a copy of this document:
      2008 | Abt Associates Inc., Private Sector Partnerships-One [PSP-One] | 2 p
      One way for developing countries to afford the costs of family planning is to reduce the number of women who have the ability to pay from obtaining subsidized (public) services. Public-sector resources can then be directed to women with the greatest financial need. Such targeting is an important component of contraceptive security because it has the potential to expand access to family planning to society’s poorest groups while addressing equity concerns. Various papers have pointed out that wealthy women receive a subsidy when they use the public sector.
      2008 | Abt Associates Inc., Private Sector Partnerships-One [PSP-One] | 2 p
      Strengthening the role of the commercial sector in contraceptive provision is an important strategy for reducing costs to donors and to local governments. Attention has focused on increasing the commercial market for short-acting methods of contraception like pills and condoms; less attention has been paid to commercial sector provision of long-acting and permanent methods (LAPMs): IUDs, implants, and female and male sterilization.
      2005 | Maximizing Access and Quality (MAQ) Initiative | 3 p
      This document discusses some of the key cost factors associated with IUD use and how they factor into a program's decision to provide IUDs and a woman's decision to use an IUD.  Also included are some additional resources on cost, pricing, and financing as it relates to the IUD.

    Supervision

      2008 | EngenderHealth/The ACQUIRE Project
      As part of a training needs assessment to identify gaps in performance of providers and/or systems, data on the actual performance of service providers and on the supervision of providers should be collected. The sample provider interview guide collects data on three areas of learning that demonstrate performance: knowledge, skills, and attitude. The sample supervisor interview guide collects information about frequency of supervision visits, activities performed during supervision, and resources needed to perform appropriate supervision.
      2005 | ACQUIRE Project/EngenderHealth | 41 slides
      This PowerPoint presentation provides a template for guiding a discussion surrounding how to select appropriate interventions to improve utilization of the IUD using outcomes from performance needs assessments.
      2002 | Management Sciences for Health [MSH] | 28 p
      This paper distills lessons from recent efforts to improve the supervision of family planning and health programs in developing countries and identifies approaches that may be more effective and sustainable. The paper provides a framework for what supportive supervision means in practice and identifies key lessons from recent efforts, as well as gaps in knowledge. Published by Management Sciences for Health [MSH], Management and Leadership Program, Produced for the Maximizing Access and Quality Initiative (MAQ). Supplement to Population Reports, Volume XXX, No. 4.
      1996 | AVSC International | 18 p
      In contrast to traditional supervisory systems, facilitative supervision emphasizes mentoring, problem solving, and continuous communication between the supervisor and those being supervised. This working paper presents the key components of facilitative supervision and describes the steps a program can take to move from a traditional to a facilitative supervisory system.

    Monitoring & Evaluation

      2006 | Maximizing Access and Quality (MAQ) Initiative | 3 p
      Monitoring the progress of IUD programs allow managers to determine where program performance is outstanding, adequate, or inadequate. In turn, this information can be used to target areas for improvement and to strategically allocate resources that will contribute to improved performance. This document discusses a few specific indicators of program progress and suggests definitions, data sources, reporting frequency, and suggested analysis for each indicator.
      No Date | U.S. Agency for International Development [USAID]
      From the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), this web page explains what couple years of protection (CYP) is, how it is calculated, and the CYP coversion factors that USAID uses for various contraceptive methods. For IUDs, USAID uses 3.5 CYP per Copper-T 380-A IUD inserted. 
      2002 | MEASURE Evaluation | MEASURE Evaluation
      The general objective of this Compendium is to encourage program evaluation and to improve the quality of work in this area. To this end, the Compendium provides a comprehensive listing of the most widely used indicators for evaluating reproductive health programs in developing countries.

    Quality Considerations

    Scaling Up

      2007 | World Health Organization [WHO)], Department of Reproductive Health and Research
      Faced with the challenge of putting into practice the ideals of the Millennium Development Goals and other global summits of the last decade, decision-makers and programme managers responsible for sexual and reproductive health ask how they can: improve access to and the quality of family planning and other sexual and reproductive health services; increase skilled attendance at birth and strengthen referral systems; reduce the recourse to abortion and improve the quality of existing abortion services; provide information and services that respond to young people’s needs; and integrate