By Kristen Little, Sr. Technical Advisor, PSI; Lola Flomen, Technical Learning Consultant, PSI; Samia Khatun, Head of Region, IPPF; and Trinity Zan, Associate Director, FHI 360
Before the onset of the pandemic in 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) published guidelines entitled “Digital Interventions for Health System Strengthening,” which recognized that digitizing family planning (FP) programs could potentially increase client reach and improve program effectiveness. Within just months of the report’s release, COVID-19 had spread around the world, leaving local partners, international non-governmental organizations (INGOs), and multilateral organizations racing to integrate digital approaches to FP programs to maintain crucial access to FP information, products and services while keeping their clients, health workers and communities safe.
Nearly a year into the global pandemic, the WHO/IBP Network, Knowledge SUCCESS project, R4S project and WISH4Results jointly hosted a webinar (below) on Wed., Feb. 17, 2021 to showcase the impact of and share lessons learned from the digital adaptations of service delivery partners’ FP programs. Following an overview of the WHO’s digital guidelines, the webinar highlighted digital adaptions across client and health provider streams including telemedicine, targeted client communications and digital training.
And A360’s COVID adaptations were a part of the featured projects.