Partnership Success Story Geared Towards Capacity Building

Fatim Diouf is the Country Engagement Lead for francophone countries in the FP2030 North, West and Central Africa (NWCA) Hub. In her role, she works with countries and key stakeholders to advance FP2030’s goals around ensuring access to voluntary, rights-based family planning in the region.

FP2030 established its NCWA Hub in 2022. Since that time, it has partnered with Knowledge SUCCESS to champion the use of knowledge management (KM) as a key tool to advance regional goals.

“By promoting collaboration and knowledge exchange,” Fatim says, “knowledge management fosters innovation, strengthens partnerships, and enhances the overall impact of family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH) efforts in the region.”

She also notes the many benefits of knowledge management she has personally experienced, stating “I have used knowledge management strategies to improve information sharing among team members, streamline internal processes, and enhance collaboration with external partners.”

FP2030 shifted to a regional hub structure to ensure the initiative’s efforts are country-led and remain globally connected. This transitional period is an especially critical time to document intuitive knowledge and experiences from departing focal points and share that information with incoming focal points.

“The partnership has empowered stakeholders to access and use relevant knowledge and resources more effectively. This, in turn, has contributed to the design, implementation, and scale-up of high-impact family planning and reproductive health interventions that address the unique needs and challenges of the region.” —Fatim Diouf, Country Engagement Lead, FP2030 NWCA Hub

Addressing Key Issues in the Region

Young people across West Africa are at heightened risks for early marriage, early and unwanted pregnancy, maternal mortality, and HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. Therefore, a top priority for the regional Hub is strengthening adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health—and knowledge management is playing a strategic role in achieving this.

One Hub staff member who participated in a Knowledge SUCCESS capacity-strengthening training shared that they plan on using learnings from the workshop “to support youth focal points in capturing and disseminating knowledge on adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health.”

In June 2023, the Hub hosted its first French-speaking focal points workshop in Lomé, Togo. During the meeting, Knowledge SUCCESS led interactive sessions on harnessing knowledge, storytelling, and developing an FP2030 strategy for youth and adolescent engagement. Thanks to these sessions, an idea was sparked to create the FP2030 Center of Excellence for Adolescents and Youth. The Center will work closely with youth leaders to ground the needs and voices of young people in family planning policies and programs.

In addition to strengthening partnerships with youth advocates, FP2030 is also focused on engaging faith leaders in family planning given their influential status in the NWCA region. To support this priority, Knowledge SUCCESS and FP2030’s NWCA Hub built off the momentum of the Interfaith Action to Drive Progress on FP2030 Commitments in Abidjan to co-host a customized follow-up knowledge management training for a group of religious leaders in West Africa.

“As religious leaders, we must adapt our skills to the needs of our community for a better and more global impact.”—FP2030/Knowledge SUCCESS KM training participant

The virtual training explored the use of collaborative spaces, storytelling approaches, and the FP Insight platform to share critical knowledge. Following the training, one faith leader noted, “I’ve already started using Google Drive and I’m planning to build a backup system for my organization’s data with the knowledge gained from the course.”

Crossing Regional Language Barriers

Since French is the official language of many countries in North, West, Central Africa, it can be difficult for family planning and reproductive health professionals based in the region to access technical knowledge and best practices coming from countries where English is the dominant language. The Knowledge SUCCESS-FP2030 NWCA Hub partnership is bridging this gap by ensuring consistent translation of resources and offering interpretation services for trainings, workshops, and other events.

For instance, in August 2023, the partnership co-hosted a webinar with spontaneous English-French interpretation on the topic of postpartum and post-abortion family planning indicators, highlighting successful implementation stories from experts in Rwanda, Nigeria and Burkina Faso. The webinar recordings and recap post are available in both languages.

“The Knowledge SUCCESS/FP2030 NWCA Hub partnership has been instrumental in driving positive change and innovation in the field of FP/RH in West Africa. By leveraging our respective strengths and expertise, we have been able to support KM capacities in the region.”—Fatim Diouf

More recently, the partnership teamed up with Knowledge SUCCESS’s East Africa team and the FP2030 East and Southern Africa (ESA) Hub to co-host a bilingual Learning Circles cohort on the institutionalization of youth and adolescent sexual and reproductive health programs. Through a mix of virtual sessions and an in-person workshop held in Accra, English-speaking and French-speaking Youth Focal Points came together to share knowledge and experiences on what’s working and what isn’t working in their countries.

The Future of the NCWA Hub and Knowledge SUCCESS Partnership

When looking ahead to future collaborative activities with Knowledge SUCCESS, Fatim says she is most interested in “exploring opportunities to expand our knowledge management initiatives, develop innovative tools and methodologies, and foster greater integration of research and practice in the field of FP/RH.”

She also says she is looking forward to “engaging with Knowledge SUCCESS to address emerging challenges, harness new technologies, and maximize the impact of our collective efforts in advancing sexual and reproductive health outcomes in the region.”

Visit the Knowledge SUCCESS West Africa page to learn more about the team’s work in the region and sign up to receive updates on regional news, events, and opportunities.