Ensuring the quality of family planning services is an essential component of effective service delivery. Increased attention to quality assurance services has heightened demand for innovative, low-cost methods to evaluate quality and provide feedback to both facilities and providers. Mobile technology, such as the use of text messaging on mobile phones, is increasingly being used in this way to improve the quality of health care services in settings around the world.

View a 90-minute webinar hosted by WHO/IBP, UNFPA, USAID, and the IBP HIPs Task Team on High-Impact Practices, effective service delivery or systems interventions that when scaled up and institutionalized, can strengthen a comprehensive family planning strategy.

In Mozambique, contraceptive use among those younger than age 25 is extremely limited, while misconceptions that impede contraceptive use are all too common. It is therefore essential that young people receive accurate information about contraception that will allow them to make evidence-based decisions about their sexual and reproductive health (SRH).

Evidence demonstrates that mobile outreach services can successfully increase contraceptive use, particularly in areas of low contraceptive prevalence, high unmet need for family planning, and limited access to contraceptives, and where geographic, economic, or social barriers limit service uptake.

Between 2008 and 2012, Marie Stopes International (MSI) provided 1.7 million contraceptive implants in sub-Saharan Africa as part of a comprehensive method mix, primarily through mobile outreach using dedicated MSI providers and also through social franchising and MSI-run clinics. Large-scale access, quality, and informed choice were key elements of MSI’s strategy.

mHealth (mobile health) is an emerging field that uses mobile and wireless technologies to support the achievement of health objectives (WHO 2011). mHealth approaches may hold the potential to strengthen family planning programming, including reaching underserved populations and addressing critical health-systems issues in areas such as human resources, health management information systems, and financing.

The guide provides an array of widely referenced resources in FP. Included are documents that explain the rationale and benefits of investing in FP, as well as more detailed programmatic and policy resources.