Célestin Compaoré, Jhpiego Regional Director for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF)-funded DMPA-SC project in eight Ouagadougou Partnership countries, shared West Africa’s lessons on FP self-care, specifically self-injectables.
He mentioned that it is extremely important to first develop a situational understanding (what works, why, and where) to build a foundation for the next steps. It is helpful to create a plan that will allow monitoring, measure distribution, and assess clients’ knowledge and understanding of self-injection, so that successes and lessons can be documented and refined. There must be working groups who address and resolve any issues that arise. Of course, an action plan and scale-up strategy are also important.
Mr. Compaoré also explained that the advantages of DMPA-SC, especially the autonomy it provides women, should be shared with the community using methods that will reach intended audiences. For example, once trained with self-injection skills, a woman does not have to rely on her local health provider. In addition, advocacy must be skillful to get community leadership buy-in. Access and availability of DMPA-SC are crucial: It should be available at all levels, everywhere.
Instructional tools on how to self-inject, including video tutorials, need to be translated into local languages. This is essential and should be shared with clients in initiation sessions. Women who have cell phones can receive the videos there and watch them in their own language. Furthermore, DMPA-SC users’ peer-to-peer experience sharing must be promoted for easier scale-up.
A multi-sector approach is best, with resources pooled by various actors to support DMPA-SC implementation. Ownership by all stakeholders and users of self-injection is important. But Mr. Compaoré stressed that while DMPA-SC is important, it should be an additional option, rather than a replacement. A range of FP method choices must still be provided.