Integration

Photo by Maya Vaughan-Smith

Integration of health services is an important component of health-system strengthening and has the potential to increase efficiency in health care and enhance access to care. Women seek a variety of health services for themselves and their children, including prenatal and postnatal care, child immunization, and HIV and AIDS prevention and care. When these programs function as vertical health programs, the number of missed opportunities to reach women with unmet need for family planning is large. Integration is a recognized strategy of increasing utilization of family planning services. Furthermore, integration of family planning with non-health sector programs, for example, livelihood programs, can also enhance access to needed information and contraceptive methods.

The Evidence Project is building upon HIV/family planning integration programming by examining integration of family planning into community-based HIV services. The project will also be researching integration of family planning into other key health services, such as postpartum and child immunization as well as integration of family planning with non-health sector programs.