Ethiopia has made notable progress in increasing awareness and knowledge of family planning and is considered a success story among funders and program planners. Yet unmet need among rural women (28.6%) is almost double that of urban women (15.5%), with a wide gap in total fertility rate depending on urban (2.6) or rural (5.5) residence. This study investigates the impact of a service delivery model that combines community-based distribution (CBD) of contraception with social marketing in Tigray, Ethiopia, to create a more sustainable approach to CBD. Between September 2011 and...
Husband‘s/partner‘s support for family planning may influence a women‘s modern contraceptive use. Socio-demographic factors, couple communication about family planning, and fertility preferences are known to play a role in contraceptive use. We conducted logistic regression analysis to investigate the relationship between perceived husband‘s/partner‘s approval and husband‘s/partner‘s encouragement of modern contraceptive use, adjusting for socio-demographic factors and recent couple communication about family planning. We also examined mediating roles potentially played by perceived...
Background: In Togo, men who have sex with men (MSM) experience disproportionately high rates of human immuno-deficiency virus (HIV), with prevalence at 13% compared to the countrywide general HIV prevalence of 2.5%. Mobile phone adoption has grown rapidly in West Africa in recent years and mobile health (mHealth) provides an opportunity to engage high-risk populations in HIV prevention, treatment and care (PTC). This study focuses on the text messaging component of a mHealth program and resulting linkages to PTC in Lomé, Togo.
Methods: We used a mixed-methods approach to collect...
In recent years a growing number of manufacturers and medical abortion products have entered country markets and health systems, with varying degrees of quality and accessibility. An interplay of factors including pharmaceutical regulations, abortion laws, government policies and service delivery guidelines and provider’s knowledge and practices influence the availability of medical abortion medicines. We assessed the availability of medical abortion in eight countries to increase understanding among policymakers of the need to improve availability and affordability of quality-...
On March 30, 2020, the Government of Nigeria implemented its first COVID-19 related lockdown. We worked with two humanitarian projects in Nigeria, the Integrated Humanitarian Assistance to Northeast Nigeria (IHANN II) in Borno State and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees South-South Health and Nutrition Intervention (UNHCR-SS-HNIR) for Cameroon Refugees and vulnerable populations in Cross River State, to document the programmatic adaptations to Family Planning/Reproductive Health (FP/RH) services in response to COVID-19 and identify successes and challenges of those...
Background: The use of medical abortion using either a combination of mifepristone and misoprostol, or misoprostol alone has contributed to increased safety and decreased mortality and morbidity. The availability of quality medical abortion medicines is an essential component in the provision of quality abortion care. Understanding the factors that influence the availability of medical abortion medicines is important to help in-country policymakers, program planners, and providers improve availability and use of medical abortion.
In Ghana, abortion is restricted except on a few legal grounds. About 11% of maternal deaths in Ghana are due to unsafe abortion. This study investigated the association between abortion motivation (the primary reason women sought abortion) and abortion safety.
Our long-time partner, Evangeline Dushimeyesu from the Rwanda Health Initiative for Youth and Women, highlighted our joint innovation—a telemedicine model for medication abortion—at the 2025 Transform Africa Summit this week. The work was featured prominently in a plenary session aligned with the conference theme, "AI for Africa: Innovate Locally, Impact...
Using community-based participatory research, Bhavya Joshi collaborates with refugee women to address maternal health crises, gender-based violence, and family planning. Her work highlights urgent healthcare gaps and empowers communities to shape solutions, aiming to reach marginalized populations first and drive sustainable policy change. Click here to see her and her teams with refugees to support women's health.
Victoria Lee, Drexler Anthony T. Madamba, Kendy Mendoza, and Hazel Warner, undergraduate students from Ndola Prata's PH181 course, Poverty and Population, have been in touch with Congressional Representatives in Washington DC, Journalist Alisha Haridasani Gupta (New York Times) and Governor Inslee (Washington). Click hereto read the students' exceptional work!
Our long-time partner, Evangeline Dushimeyesu from the Rwanda Health Initiative for Youth and Women, highlighted our joint innovation—a telemedicine model for medication abortion—at the 2025 Transform Africa Summit this week. The work was featured prominently in a plenary session aligned with the conference theme, "AI for Africa: Innovate Locally, Impact...