Monitoring the Integration of Family Planning and HIV Services: Indicators Both to Measure Progress toward the 90-90-90 Targets and Ensure the Reproductive Rights of All Women

Author(s): MEASURE Evaluation

Year: 2016

Abstract:

The HIV epidemic disproportionately affects women of reproductive age, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, where nearly 60 percent of people living with HIV are women. In support of the global 90-90-90 targets, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) recommends reducing the number of unintended pregnancies among women living with HIV (WLHIV). Voluntary family planning (FP) services not only would reduce the number of children acquiring HIV but also reduce the risk for pregnancy-related complications and improve the health of WLHIV, by giving these women the means to space pregnancies (Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS [UNAIDS], 2014a; UNAIDS, 2014b). Improving the overall health of a woman will help her remain on HIV treatment and achieve viral suppression.

This brief, developed by the USAID-funded MEASURE Evaluation, outlines key elements of FP and HIV service integration as well as common challenges that limit their effectiveness. It is particularly useful to program managers and to technical and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) officers who are interested in determining whether integrated voluntary FP services being offered at HIV service delivery points (SDPs) are achieving their intended goals. The brief is a companion to a manual on this topic that MEASURE Evaluation also developed: Monitoring the Integration of Family Planning and HIV Services: A Manual to Support the Use of Indicators to Measure Progress toward PEPFAR’s 90-90-90 Targets and Protect Women’s Reproductive Rights (Freyder, Craig, & Kaji, 2016). The manual presents a set of indicators for monitoring the scope and outcomes of FP and HIV service integration. It is intended for use by USAID missions, but program managers elsewhere can benefit from it, as well.