Oral

This session assembles a world class panel of experts to illuminate and explore the complex task of mounting high quality, innovative and effective family planning programs at scale. The theoretical evidence regarding what we know and don’t know about how to scale up programs will provide a foundation for the session. A simple, powerful and theoretically informed framework for guiding the scale up process will be presented and discussed, as will some practical scale up tools designed to help program planners and implementers. Examples of scale up activities will be presented to illustrate not only different types of scale up, but also the range and depth of factors that can facilitate or hinder scale up at various stages from conception to completed implementation. Systematic screening will exemplify scale up of a clinic-based intervention to improve organization of health services. A multi-country example of community-based distribution of injectable contraception will be used to highlight the process of replication. One of the most challenging aspects of operating family planning programs at scale has to do with sustainability. Especially in low resource settings, the choice of interventions, the planning for funding to install the chosen interventions, and the recurring cost implications loom large over the process. In this session, donor perspectives on how, why and when to provide funding for family planning programs at scale will be presented.

Session Objectives: 1) Recognize the utility of applying a conceptual framework to the scaling up of public health interventions 2) Describe how to use research to build sustainable service delivery capacity 3) Articulate a number of ways donors might regard scale-up, depending on the characteristics of the donor. 4) Identify how scale-up frameworks and techniques are being used to foster replication of this effective practice across geographic and institution settings

CE Credits: CME, Health Education (CHES), Nursing