Measuring progress toward increasing access to and quality of family planning sites in Kinshasa

Background. The Kinshasa Family Planning Coalition set the goal of increasing the percentage of family planning (FP) service delivery sites from 42% in 2012 to the aspirational goal of 80% by late 2013. This follow-up survey was conducted of all health facilities providing contraceptive services in Kinshasa to determine the extent of change.

Methods: The Kinshasa School of Public Health conducted this survey. They updated lists of sites supported by different FP implementing agencies in Kinshasa, and they conferred with the district medical officer in each health zone. Data were collected using SmartPhones, with immediate transmission to a server (FormHub). Geo-reference codes were taken at each site.

Results: The research team visited 449 health facilities, of which 398 reported to offer FP services. The percentage of sites receiving a three-star rating increased from 42% in 2012 to 63% in 2013 (based on all sites) and 70% (based on the subset of “same sites” in both years). Over half of sites had condoms, injectables, IUDs, implants, pills, and cyclebeads in stock. Maps were created to determine the spatial distribution and level of quality of FP services in Kinshasa.

Utilization of data: The research team prepared individual reports for each FP implementing partner on the performance of the sites it supported. Members of the Kinshasa Family Planning Coalition will work toward (1) increasing quality at existing sites and (2) developing services in underserved areas, identified as such by the mapping, specific to each of the 35 health zones in Kinshasa.