End of the Amplify PF and WABA projects: encouraging results after 5 years of implementation

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Extract from the article: On 05 and 06 December 2023, Lomé was the venue for the regional workshop marking the end of the AmplifyPF and West AfricaBreakthrough Action (WABA) projects. The meeting brought together around a hundred participants from the four countries to review

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On 05 and 06 December 2023, Lomé was the venue for the regional workshop marking the end of the AmplifyPF and West AfricaBreakthrough Action (WABA) projects. The meeting brought together around a hundred participants from the four countries to review the overall results and consider how to sustain the gains made.  The projects were officially closed by the Secretary General of the Ministry of Health, Dr Kokou Wotobé, in the presence of the United States Ambassador to Togo, Elizabeth Noseworthy Fitzsimmons. It also marked the launch of a new project called "Expand PF", again funded by USAID, to extend family planning services in 04 countries, namely Togo, Cameroon, Mauritania and Côte d'Ivoire.

Over the course of two days, the meeting focused on sharing the overall results of the good practices implemented and the success stories aimed at accelerating access to quality RH/FP services. The total cost of implementing these projects in all countries amounts to 24.5 million US dollars. This amount has been invested in initiatives aimed at strengthening access to sexual and reproductive health services, thereby contributing to the overall improvement of maternal and child health in the region.

« Across the four countries where the Amplify FP and WABA projects were implemented, they covered 19 health districts with a total of 513 public and private health facilities, including 215 in Burkina Faso, 90 in Côte d'Ivoire, 92 in Niger and 116 in Togo. Of these 513 health facilities, 403 have a maternity unit. All 403 of these health facilities offered immediate post-partum family planning services, representing 100% coverage of health facilities with a maternity unit. This is a real scale-up of immediate post-partum family planning within the intervention zones of the two projects », explained Dr Frank Aguima Tankoano, Regional Director of Amplify PF.

Thibout Williams, USAID Regional Health Director for West Africa, was also pleased with the results. « When we look at the figures, every year the AmplifyPF project has exceeded its expected targets. In the field, we can really see the impact of this project on women who have been able to choose their desired FP method. We have seen how communities have been able to mobilise endogenous resources, and how all the forces in these communities have been involved in facilitating access to modern methods of contraception », he said.

Overall results of AmplifyPF

AmplifyPF set itself the target of 1,443,842 pairs protected over the course of the project. By the end of the project, 1,815,538 pairs had been protected, representing an achievement rate of 125.7%.

In terms of new users of modern contraceptive methods, AmplifyPF made it possible to offer family planning to 529,843 new users, i.e. an achievement rate of 99.2%. In all three components, namely Couple Year Protection, New Users of Modern Contraceptive Methods, and Task Shifting, Togo was one of the beneficiary countries with the highest rates.Togo achieved rates of 170.7%, 115.6% and 109.2% respectively.

According to Dr Abram Amétépé Agossou, Director of Mother and Child Health in Togo, « the AmplifyPF and WABA projects, which follow on from two projects previously supported by USAID, aim to support countries in their efforts to improve family planning indicators. Studies have shown that well-managed family planning can reduce maternal and neonatal deaths by 30%.These two projects have supported Togo in offering family planning services through community-based distribution strategies, even in villages far from health facilities. As far as WABA is concerned, we can point to the implementation of a system that enables patients to find their way around the health facility easily by identifying the services they need ».

In terms of maternal and child health, 8,230 newborns in respiratory distress were resuscitated, a 97% success rate.As regards women giving birth in the 19 maternity referral units (Hub) in the target districts, 82,580 women out of 82,662 who gave birth received uterotonics to prevent post-partum haemorrhage, representing a 99.9% rate of use of a uterotonic in the immediate post-partum period.

One of the aims of the AmplifyPF project is to involve grassroots communities in sustaining the gains made.In this way, the project has facilitated the mobilisation of local resources to improve the quality of family planning and reproductive health services. Thanks to the support of AmplifyPF, the Technical Support Committees for the Integrated Learning Networks have mobilised 497,752,384 FCFA, i.e. approximately 905,000 US dollars.

Overall results of WABA

During its implementation period, the WABA project created multi-media campaigns to increase people's willingness to seek family planning services. The « Total Confidence » campaign was broadcast in all four countries to create demand for family planning services.The « Merci Mon Héros » campaign was a catalyst for intergenerational communication, aimed at breaking down the taboos that exist in the project countries about the reproductive health of young people and adolescents.These campaigns were a perfect accompaniment to the Amplify project's activities to motivate social and behavioural change.New "ExpandPF" projectWith a total budget of 49,500,000 dollars over 5 years, the project will be implemented through national partners in the four beneficiary countries.In Togo, the project will be implemented by the Togolese Association for Family Welfare (ATBEF).

ExpandPF is a continuation of the two projects that are coming to an end, and is intended to build on the achievements of AmplifyPF and WABA. It aims to remove the remaining obstacles to family planning in the beneficiary countries, in particular accessibility and availability of FP services, shortages of FP inputs, marginalisation of vulnerable groups, limited access to long-term irreversible methods, and certain social and cultural norms.

The main objectives of the project are therefore to increase the demand for FP/RH services in the target districts by the end of the activity in 2028, to improve the quality of FP/RH services at facility and community level in the districts targeted by the activity by 2028 and to strengthen the adoption, implementation and national scale-up of certain health and self-care measures in the ExpandPF districts of the beneficiary countries. « AmplifyPF and WABA have improved the accessibility and quality of family planning services in Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Niger and Togo.The two projects have reached people in nearly 20 health districts and more than 500 health centres.The ExpandPF project will continue the incredible work of AmplifyPF.Under the leadership of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, ExpandPF will achieve significant results in Togo, Mauritania, Côte d'Ivoire and Cameroon. We are confident that it will improve lives in each of these countries », said Elizabeth Fitzsimmons, US Ambassador to Togo.

The Togo Ministry of Health, through its Secretary General, expressed the hope that the new project would extend to the regions rather than the districts, as was the case for AmplifyPF and WABA. « While congratulating the AmplifyPF and WABA team for the professional work they have done, I would like to thank USAID and take this opportunity to express a wish for the future project.Based on the experience of the AmplifyPF and WABA projects in terms of geographical coverage, let's hope that ExpandPF does better by taking into account, in its implementation, the regional area rather than the district.By doing so, the project's activities will cover all the districts in a region, as was the case for Greater Lomé in the AmplifyPF project.This will have more impact and facilitate scaling up », said Dr Kokou Wotobé.

Both projects were funded by USAID, Regional Office of Health for West Africa based in Accra, Ghana. They have been implemented since 2018 by Pathfinder International and the Johns Hopkins University Center for Communication Programs in Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Niger and Togo.

William O.