Mobile outreach dismantles barriers to the adoption of long term family planning methods in Togo

Population Services International/Togo launched a nation-wide family planning project in July 2008 to respond to unmet FP needs of 41%. The initiative aimed to train service providers, expand the range of available products, and inform the population of their FP options. One element of the project, mobile outreach, generated particularly successful results by dismantling barriers to adoption of long term FP methods (LTMs). The strategy targeted women of reproductive age and their male partners living in rural areas where there is little access to family planning services and, especially, to LTMs (implants and intrauterine devices (IUDs)). On mobile outreach days, PSI trained service providers visited an under-served site and offered general information, individual counseling, and provision of the LTM of choice to interested couples free of charge. In three months of mobile outreach activity (180 outings), PSI-trained service providers inserted 2,808 implants and 1,017 IUDs. These results, compared to the insertion of 758 implants and 485 IUDs across all 80 fixed network centers over the same period (August – October 2009), demonstrate the effectiveness of the mobile outreach strategy in overcoming barriers to acceptance. Accurate information combined with easily accessible and free service often outweighs unfavorable misconceptions encouraging couples to try a LTM. Mobile outreach activities generate new clientele both immediately, with on-the-spot insertion and, in the future, by creating a nucleus of local users who can dispel myths and stimulate adoption by others.