Publications by Theme

Scaling Up Community-Based Service Delivery of Implanon: The Integrated Family Health Program's Experience Training Health Extension Workers,  2010

This paper details Pathfinder International’s work in community-based service delivery training of Implanon services in Ethiopia. By training Health Extension Workers (HEWs) to insert contraceptive implants, Pathfinder provided over 3,500 women with LAFP. In just the first two months of implementation, the HEWs reached an additional 4,500 women with services.

A Reproductive Health Communication Model That Helps Improve Young Women's Reproductie Life and Reduce Population Growth: The Case of PRACHAR from Bihar, India, 2010

Using data from a project in Bihar, India, this paper shows that culturally acceptable and community-focused interventions geared to adolescents and youth can help increase age of marriage and first birth, increase contraceptive use among young couples, provide vulnerable populations better access to RH services, and reduce population growth.

The Effect of Community-Based Reproductive Health Communication Interventions on Contraceptive Use Among Married Couples in Bihar, India, International Family Planning Perspectives, December 2008

In this paper, authors Elkan E. Daniel et al., of Pathfinder International, compared family planning attitudes, knowledge, and behavior among young women in three Bihar districts before and after the implementation of a program aimed at promoting contraceptive use and family planning by involving the whole community. They found that contraceptive use among young married women in these areas rose significantly, from 4% to 21%. The authors conclude that culturally appropriate, community-based programs that promote family planning services can significantly increase contraceptive use even when contraceptive provision is not a part of the intervention. 

Reproductive Health and Family Planning in Kenya: The Pathfinder International Experience, October 2008

Pathfinder International has worked in Kenya since 1969, providing extensive training, technical assistance, and support to a vast array of government and nongovernment partners in the provision of quality reproductive health care, family planning services, HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, support, and care. 

Ethiopia’s Health Extension Program: Pathfinder International’s Support 2003-2007, December 2007

This paper describes Pathfinder’s support to the Ethiopian government’s Health Extension Program (HEP). Following years of close collaboration with Ethiopia’s federal Ministry of Health, regional, zonal, woreda and kebele sector offices, and community leaders, Pathfinder began supporting the HEP soon after its launch in 2003.

Pathfinding Number 4: Service Delivery-Based Training for Long-Acting Family Planning Methods: Client/Provider Satisfaction Assessment, December 2007

This paper describes the result of a survey conducted with 806 current LAFP users, 29 LAFP discontinuers, 42 CBRHAs who refer potential clients, 19 health care providers who deliver LAFPs, and 21 managers of facilities where such services are provided. The survey sought to understand the quality of care issues surrounding the use and delivery of LAFP.

Service Delivery-Based Training for Long-Acting Family Planning Methods: Pathfinder International in Ethiopia, December 2007

This paper describes Pathfinder’s unique method of recruiting potential LAFP clients through community health workers and mobilizing them to attend training sessions.  Through this method, Pathfinder has been able to provide 47,637 clients with IUCDs and implants and trained 1,1,58 providers in these methods.

Enhanced Access to Reproductive Health and Family Planning: Pathfinder International in Ethiopia 2002-2007, December 2007

This piece documents Pathfinder’s USAID-funded Reproductive Health and Family Planning project. Since its launch in 2002, the project has trained 10,000 community-based reproductive health agents in 6,315 villages. The project covers approximately 32 million people, which comprises about half of the project area population and 43 percent of the national population. The paper details the project’s community-based approach to reproductive health, family planning, maternal and child health, and reduction of harmful traditional practices.

Reproductive Health of Young Adults in India: The Road to Public Health, September 2006

This report describes the Reproductive Health of Young Adults in India (RHEYA) project. RHEYA’s goal was to delay early marriage, increase the use of contraception by young couples to delay the first child and space subsequent children, and to reduce the use of abortion as a method of contraception. The RHEYA project model was groundbreaking in India in recognizing the necessity to develop messages and means of intervention appropriate to the specific needs and interests of young people at different life stages.

Improving the Range of Contraceptive Choices in Rural Ethiopia, The Ethiopian Journal of Health Development, v 20 (2), 2006

Despite the reality of high unmet need, the utilization of family planning services in Ethiopia have been low. There is a need to expand access to family planning services in rural Ethiopia by making available more choices to family planning clients. This study concludes that improving the usage of wide range contraceptive method mix improves the quality of family planning services rendered to the community and ensures sustainability of the services.

Promoting Change in the Reproductive Behavior of Youth, Pathfinder International’s PRACHAR Project, Bihar, India, August 2005

The PRACHAR Project offers unique lessons in how to improve the health and welfare of adolescent and young mothers and their children by changing traditional customs of early childbearing. This report offers a detailed overview of the project’s successful efforts to reduce early marriage, to delay childbirth among young women, and to space subsequent births.

• Changing Reproductive Health Behavior in Youth: A Cultural Shift in Bihar, India Published in Global HealthLink, June/July 2007

Community-Based Reproductive Health Care: Creating Demand in Ethiopia, August 2005

This brief article details the outstanding work of Pathfinder International/Ethiopia’s network of Pathfinder-trained Community-Based Reproductive Health Agents, who are bringing family planning, maternal and child health care, and basic health care information into their communities. 

Local Leadership Boosts Health Care Delivery: Woreda Advisory Committees Open Doors to Change, August 2005

This brief article describes a system of advisory committees at the district level in Ethiopia, staffed by leaders from government and local civil society, which are providing invaluable support to Pathfinder’s family planning and reproductive health programs.

Ethiopia: Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices in Family Planning, June 2005 

This report presents the results of a September 2004 survey on the current level of knowledge, attitudes, and practices related to family planning in the Amhara, Oromia, SNNPR and Tigray Regions of Ethiopia.

Community-Based Family Planning in Kenya: Meeting New Challenges, April 2005

This report details a three-year, privately-funded project that sought to reinvigorate family planning services in western Kenya and Mombassa.

Management of Common Contraceptive Problems, 2000. 

A problem-solving reference manual for service providers in Africa.