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Por qué la gestión del conocimiento es importante para los planes de implementación presupuestados de planificación familiar

And How to Do It: Feedback and Lessons from 5 West African Countries


CIP Technical Working Group members from Burkina Faso. Image Credit: Aïssatou Thioye (Knowledge SUCCESS).

Diverse family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH) program stakeholders, from Ministry of Health officials to representatives of civil society organizations and youth organizations, are championing the strategic integration of knowledge management (KM) into their programs to advance FP/RH outcomes in their countries.  

Findings from a recent evaluación conducted by Knowledge SUCCESS of KM integration into Costed Implementation Plans (CIPs) in five West African countries—Burkina Faso, costa de marfil, Níger, Senegal, and Para llevar—revealed the multifaceted ways KM contributes to stronger FP/RH outcomes and more efficient use of limited resources including:  

  • Coordinando stakeholders and their activities to avoid duplication of effort 
  • Facilitating collaboration and the sharing of information within and between organizations to maximize effective programs 
  • Taking stock of what’s working and identifying solutions to address challenges 
  • Documenting the “what” and the “how” of programs to ensure the FP/RH field is learning as they are doing and evolving as needs change and new challenges arise. 

For example, an FP/RH stakeholder from Côte d’Ivoire explained KM’s critical role in achieving the Metas de desarrollo sostenible (SDGs) by helping programs learn from their experiences and find solutions to fill gaps in knowledge:   

… What do we know, what do we need to improve and what are the challenges? And then find solutions, because we won’t be able to achieve all the SRHR [sexual and reproductive health and rights] objectives we’ve set for the SDGs, even by 2030.

Another stakeholder from Burkina Faso emphasized the importance of KM in facilitating this knowledge sharing and learning across programs, organizations, and even sectors:  

How do we capitalize on what we’ve learned? And how do we use this in other programs? … knowledge management is a process that actually enables capitalized results to be used. One program’s current results, therefore, can have an impact on the other program. … it’s not even a question of health anymore, it’s a question of development … 

Common FP/RH Program Challenges and KM Solutions 

Between 2021 and 2023, Knowledge SUCCESS collaborated with Avance en África Occidental ACCIÓN (WABA), Póliza de Salud Plus (HP+), and other CIP working group members to integrate KM into five West African countries’ family planning CIPs. CIPs are multi-year actionable roadmaps, referred to in French as plan d’action national budgétisé de planification familiale (budgeted national family planning action plans), designed to support governments in achieving their FP/RH goals. 

As these stakeholders began to formulate their roadmaps, they recognized that KM could help solve certain barriers to advancing FP/RH outcomes. Some of these barriers included lack of awareness among program stakeholders of FP/RH legislative policies and regulations due to weak availability, dissemination, and promotion; duplication of effort and wasted resources stemming from insufficient coordination between FP/RH programs and donors; and challenges with scaling up best practices because platforms weren’t readily available to share information with each other.  

In the five countries, the CIP working groups intentionally included KM initiatives in their CIPs—alongside social and behavior change (SBC), supply chain, service delivery, enabling environment, and monitoring and evaluation interventions—to help solve these problems. Common KM initiatives included in the CIPs, according to our analysis of the five countries’ CIPs, consisted of: 

  • Developing a functional platform to share information, accessible to all stakeholders 
  • Forming thematic groups on FP/RH topics or revitalizing FP/RH committees 
  • Documenting experiences, best practices, and lessons learned 
  • Developing and disseminating feedback bulletins 
  • Organizing national meetings to share program lessons and evidence 

Of course, we know it’s common to experience challenges with executing a plan, and challenges with executing CIPs—however relevant and useful they are—are no exception. Although some countries were still in the final stages of finalizing their CIP or had only recently begun to execute their CIP at the time of our assessment, some of the stakeholders did point to the implementation of specific KM activities that were included in their CIP. For example:  

  • En Senegal, the Ministry of Health’s Department of Maternal and Child Health recently hired a KM specialist in its goal to institutionalize knowledge management. The KM specialist has already conducted an information audit and is planning to produce a KM strategy in collaboration with all the key partners, as well as KM training for all department staff. 
  • En Níger, stakeholders were currently establishing a community of practice focused on youth and climate change to share experiences and approaches across programs, and partners document interventions and regularly write and publish articles to help promote best practices.  
  • En costa de marfil, respondents were aware that country stakeholders were coordinating their activities for a World Contraception Day event.

How to Integrate KM Into National Strategies and Action Plans  

CIPs and other types of national strategies or action plans are important planning tools because they help countries identify the best ways to achieve their family planning or other health goals and objectives.  Integrating KM interventions into CIPs and other national strategies is crucial to avoid inefficiencies and duplication of effort in programs, better coordinate resources across stakeholders and institutions, and ensure programs are learning as they are doing—and applying that learning for more effective programming and better FP/RH outcomes.  

Based on the findings of our assessment, we propose the following recommendations to facilitate the integration of KM into country CIPs and strategies:

Identify potential KM champions who can advocate for the inclusion of KM in the CIP to help achieve a country’s FP/RH objectives.   

Conduct an analysis of KM inclusion in the previous CIP a identify areas of strength and potential gaps. Inspired by Breakthrough Action’s useful SBC Checklist to Develop and Assess Costed Implementation Plans for Demand Creation, Knowledge SUCCESS is currently developing a checklist to help countries assess their KM needs and better integrate KM into their CIPs.  

Elemento de cuadro flotante

Elemento de cuadro flotante

Stay tuned for updates on the finalization of the checklist.

Replicate and reinforce Knowledge SUCCESS’s interactive KM workshop model to help country stakeholders better understand KM’s role in FP/RH programs. In all five West African countries, CIP working group members who participated in the KM workshops said the interactive workshop activities helped a ellos identify the country’s primary KM challenges and select suitable KM strategies and activities while building on the KM activities that the country was already doing. 

Support countries during the execution of CIPs, particularly related to capacity strengthening and resource mobilization for KM to help ensure the CIP approach translates into sustainable impact. 

As donor government funding for family planning drops or, at best, remains stagnant, it becomes even more important for FP/RH programs to use these finite resources more efficiently. KM benefits programs and organizations by helping them make better and faster decisions, solve problems, avoid redundancies and repeating costly mistakes, communicate best practices and lessons learned widely and quickly, and stimulate innovation and growth. Integrating KM into national strategy documents and plans is a smart investment por donors, governments, and organizations alike to achieve their health and development goals.  

Learn more about the assessment:

Ruwaida Salem

Oficial sénior de programas, Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs

Ruwaida Salem, directora sénior de programas del Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs, tiene casi 20 años de experiencia en el campo de la salud global. Como líder del equipo de soluciones de conocimiento y autora principal de Building Better Programs: A Step-by-Step Guide to Using Knowledge Management in Global Health, diseña, implementa y administra programas de gestión de conocimiento para mejorar el acceso y el uso de información de salud crítica entre profesionales de la salud en todo el mundo. Tiene una Maestría en Salud Pública de la Escuela de Salud Pública Johns Hopkins Bloomberg, una Licenciatura en Ciencias en Dietética de la Universidad de Akron y un Certificado de Posgrado en Diseño de Experiencia de Usuario de la Universidad Estatal de Kent.

Tara Sullivan

Director de Proyecto, Knowledge SUCCESS, Centro Johns Hopkins para Programas de Comunicación

Dra. Tara M Sullivan, Directora, Gestión del conocimiento y Knowledge SUCCESS Tara M. Sullivan, Ph.D., MPH, dirige la unidad de gestión del conocimiento del Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs, es directora del proyecto Knowledge SUCCESS y enseña en el Departamento de Salud, Comportamiento y Sociedad de la Escuela de Salud Pública Johns Hopkins Bloomberg. Ha trabajado durante más de 20 años en salud internacional con un enfoque en evaluación de programas, gestión del conocimiento (KM), calidad de la atención y planificación familiar y salud reproductiva (FP/SR). Tara ha cerrado una brecha de conocimiento en el campo de KM al desarrollar marcos y guías para el diseño, implementación, monitoreo y evaluación de programas de KM, y al explorar la contribución que KM hace para fortalecer los sistemas de salud y mejorar los resultados de salud. Su investigación ha examinado las necesidades de conocimiento en múltiples niveles del sistema de salud y ha investigado cómo los factores sociales (capital social, redes sociales, aprendizaje social) contribuyen a los resultados del intercambio de conocimientos. Tara también ha investigado los factores que influyen en la prestación de atención de calidad en los programas globales de FP/SR. Ha vivido y trabajado en Botswana y Tailandia y tiene títulos de la Universidad de Cornell (BS) y de la Facultad de Salud Pública y Medicina Tropical de la Universidad de Tulane (Ph.D., MPH).

Aïssatou Thioye

Oficial de Asociaciones y Gestión del Conocimiento de África Occidental, Knowledge SUCCESS, FHI 360

Aïssatou Thioye está en la división de l'utilisation de la recherche, au sein du GHPN de FHI360 et travaille pour le projet Knowledge SUCCESS en tant que Responsable de la Gestion des Connaissances et du Partenariat pour l'Afrique de l'Ouest. Dans son rôle, elle appuie le renforcement de la gestion des connaissances dans la région, l'établissement des priorités et la concepción de stratégies de gestion des connaissances aux groupes de travail technologies et partenaires de la PF/SR en Afrique de l'Ouest. Elle asegurar el enlace con los partenaires et les réseaux régionaux. Par rapport à son expérience, Aïssatou a travaillé pendant plus de 10 ans comme journale presse, rédactrice-consultante pendant deux ans, avant de rejoindre JSI où elle a travaillé dans deux projets d'Agriculture et de Nutrition, successivement comme mass-media officer puis spécialiste de la Gestion des Connaissances.******Aïssatou Thioye está en la División de Utilización de Investigación del GHPN de FHI 360 y trabaja para el proyecto Knowledge SUCCESS como Oficial de Asociación y Gestión del Conocimiento para África Occidental. En su función, apoya el fortalecimiento de la gestión del conocimiento en la región, estableciendo prioridades y diseñando estrategias de gestión del conocimiento en los grupos de trabajo técnicos y de socios de FP/SR en África Occidental. También sirve de enlace con socios y redes regionales. En relación con su experiencia, Aïssatou trabajó durante más de 10 años como periodista de prensa, luego como editora-consultora durante dos años, antes de unirse a JSI donde trabajó en dos proyectos de Agricultura y Nutrición, sucesivamente como oficial de medios de comunicación y luego como especialista en Gestión del Conocimiento.

Najmeh Modarres

Global Health and Development Professional

Najmeh Modarres is a dedicated global health and development professional with over 15 years of experience, specializing in global health research and program management. Her background includes managing complex public health projects and synthesizing data into actionable insights for decision-making in challenging settings. Her technical expertise spans social and behavior change communication, knowledge management, emerging infectious and neglected diseases, family planning and reproductive health, safe motherhood and child health, capacity strengthening, and community mobilization. From 2019 to 2024, she spearheaded the global monitoring, evaluation, and learning efforts for the Knowledge SUCCESS project. Najmeh is deeply committed to feminist, anti-racist, and decolonial approaches, fostering inclusive and collaborative environments through compassionate interpersonal and intercultural communication. She holds a Master of Public Health with a specialization in Global Maternal and Child Health from Tulane University Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.