Family Planning Method Choice: Key Indicators

Author(s): MEASURE Evaluation

Year: 2018

Abstract:

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Office of Population and Reproductive Health (PRH) is working to provide contraceptive method choice to women, men, and adolescents in priority countries who wish to prevent pregnancy. The aim is to enable people in these priority countries to use their preferred method of family planning (FP) (USAID, n.d.). By seeking to provide FP method choice, PRH acknowledges that appropriate methods for couples and individuals vary according to their age, parity, family-size preference, and other factors. PRH also ensures that women, men, and youth have information and access to the widest range of safe and effective FP methods to enable them to exercise free and informed choice (United Nations Population Fund, 1996). This work is in line with the goal of the USAID-funded MEASURE Evaluation to improve site-level health service.

Because rigorous monitoring and evaluation (M&E) is essential to the success of FP programs, PRH identifies it as a priority area. This resource outlines 10 key indicators intended for use by USAID partner organizations, to inform their M&E of programs to enhance method choice.

No program or project should ever attempt to use all indicators presented here. For routine monitoring, program managers and evaluators should select a few relevant indicators that both are important to program objectives and easy to collect and interpret. The indicators may be supplemented or tailored to reflect a program’s unique context and objectives.