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Male engagement in family planning (FP) improves reproductive health and gender outcomes.* In many settings, men play a dominant role in decisions such as family size and the use of contraceptives. Men's critical role in FP decisions makes it important to include them in FP programming. Programs engaging men can enhance spousal communication, improve gender-equitable attitudes, and increase FP use.**
HIV-related stigma is a key barrier to testing and treatment. In October 2017, UNAIDS released a report stating that people living with HIV who experience high levels of HIV-related stigma are more than twice as likely to delay enrolment into care than people who do not perceive HIV-related stigma. Stigma plays a role in losses throughout the treatment continuum and remains a key barrier to improving HIV outcomes.
Service providers, whether facility or community based, are a key link between communities and health systems. A provider’s direct interactions with clients means they play a crucial role as facilitator and potential barrier to their clients adopting healthy behaviors. A service provider’s opinions and biases, attitudes and behaviors, capacity and skills, and working conditions can influence their ability or motivation to deliver quality services. Such barriers may be outcomes of individual, interpersonal, organizational, and institutional factors.
Segmentation is the process of dividing a large audience into smaller groups of people - or segments - who have similar needs, values or characteristics. It recognizes that different groups will respond differently to social and behavior change (SBC) messages and interventions. Segmenting audiences enables a program to focus on those audience members who are most critical to reach and also to design the most effective and efficient strategy for helping each audience adopt new behaviors.
Use of insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) is one of the main interventions to prevent malaria, and high ITN use rates are a central goal of malaria programs. The four standard indicators to assess outcomes have assessed the percentage of: 1) households owing at least 1 ITN, 2) population with access to an ITN within their household, 3) households owing at least 1 ITN for every 2 people, and 4) population that used an ITN the previous night.
Communication plays a critical role in providing women and their partners with the information needed to inform contraceptive method selection. Recently, framing that information (Strategic Communication Framework for Hormonal Contraceptive Methods and Potential HIV-Related Risks) in a clear, consistent, and complete manner has become challenging as ambiguity around risks associated with use of long-acting progestogen-only injectables remains.
Real-time monitoring (RTM) it is a way to facilitate the timely use of data in order to better inform ongoing programmatic activities. RTM allows for high-quality data – that is timely, relevant, accurate, complete, and specific – to be collected, organized, stored, and managed in efforts to increase data accessibility, data visualization, and data use.
In recent years, development programs have shifted away from vertical programming to initiatives that bring together a combination of topics/approaches within a single program. This shift is reflected in the Sustainable Development Goals, indicating that integrated programming is a priority across the range of global development areas.
In August 2017, Madagascar began experiencing a large outbreak of plague affecting major cities and other non-endemic areas. By the end of October 2017, a total of 1801 confirmed, probable and suspected cases of plague, including 127 deaths, were reported by the Ministry of Health of Madagascar to the World Health Organization (WHO), and 51 of 114 of Madagascar's districts were affected. WHO was producing new outbreak reports every few days.
According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), “good sexual and reproductive health (SRH) is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being in all matters relating to the reproductive system. It implies that people are able to have a satisfying and safe sex life, the capability to reproduce and the freedom to decide if, when and how often to do so."
