Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #105865

Elvira Beracochea, MD MPH, Deputy Director, Advance Africa Project, 4301 Fairfax Drive, Suite 400, Arlington, VA 22203-1627, 703-248-1631, eberacochea@advanceafrica.org, Nohra Villamil, MD, Advance Africa Huambo Angola, 4301 Fairfax Drive, Suite 400, Arlington, VA 22203, Fernando Vicente, MD, Advance Africa, Huambo, Angola, 4301 Fairfax Dr., Suite 400, Arlington, VA 22203, and Issakha Diallo, MD DrPH, Project Director, Advance Africa Project, 4301 Fairfax Drive, Suite 400, Fairfax, VA 22203-1627.

From June 2003 to June 2005 Advance Africa/Angola worked to develop functional family planning/reproductive health (FP/RH) services in Huambo, the province most affected by the four decades of civil war that ended in 2002. This was a demonstration project, and the strategies, results and lessons learned will help implement programs in other provinces and countries in Africa. The damage inflicted by decades of war is still affecting Huambo today. Large population movements to resettle or return to Huambo, coupled with very poor road conditions, damaged bridges, and the presence of land mines, have increased the strain on Huambo's health infrastructure, limited supplies, and few skilled health workers. The Advance Africa approach emphasizes strategies that can mainstream FP/RH service delivery in 14 existing health centers. The goal of Advance Africa/Angola was to implement quality FP/RH services in the half the province's health facilities. Advance Africa developed a program that included strategic and participatory needs assessment and planning and simple service implementation checklists to assist counterparts rebuild the services based on seven components:

1. Capacity building of health center staff, including training in counseling skills and supervision 2. Contraceptive logistics to ensure the reliable supply of family planning commodities 3. Behavior change communication to increase the demand in the communities surrounding health centers and then to progressively expand the centers' areas of influence 4. Community involvement in health center services, especially in activities involving internally displaced persons (IDPs) who have returned to Huambo 5. Monitoring and evaluation to strengthen the use of simple indicators to improve FP/RH service delivery 6. Partnerships and multisectoral collaboration 7. Advocacy to promote the health benefits of FP/RH to decision makers and advance the implementation of the national FP/RH policy

The team used simple monitoring and evaluation tools. M&E results will be presented to demonstrate the rapid restoration of services of acceptable quality in a post-conflict setting.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn about how to assess service needs strategically in a post conflict setting.
• Discuss simple checklists to accelerate restoration of services.
• Discuss ways of monitoring implementation and evaluating results

Keywords: Family Planning, Access to Care

Related Web page: www.advanceafrica.org

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commertial supporters WITH THE EXCEPTION OF being deputy director of the implementing project.