2. ACCELERATION
The UNFPA Strategy for Family Planning identifies eight strategic priorities. This Acceleration Plan operationalizes the strategy.
Accelerating progress on family planning requires a sound understanding, contextualization and appreciation of programmatic gaps and opportunities, as explored in the Assessent section and its checklist. Did the assessment process help to identify areas where additional efforts may be needed? In this section, Acceleration, priority areas of action are identified, and then elaborated through programmatic options for various contexts and needs. The acceleration plan will help UNFPA country and regional offices to identify what needs to be done and provide practical guidance on how to do it. Click on a strategic priority to see tailored priority actions and programmatic options.
How to speed progress on the UNFPA family planning strategy
Eight strategic priorities form the core of the UNFPA Strategy for Family Planning, 2022–2030. Action based on these strategic priorities is the fastest route to ending the unmet need for family planning. The strategic priorities are grounded in UNFPA’s global mandate and draw on experience and lessons learned. They enable UNFPA to optimize its impact and respond to the root causes and persistent barriers to family planning progress. In approaching programming in these priority areas, everything flows from UNFPA values and principles – applying approaches that are human rights-based, gender-transformative and leave no one behind.
This acceleration plan operationalizes the UNFPA family planning strategy, which features eight strategic priorities. Each strategic priority is associated with an output, and under each output are selected priority actions and associated programmatic options for implementation in various contexts. Ultimately, each element of this acceleration plan tracks back to the outputs, pathways and accelerators of the UNFPA strategic plan.
8 strategic priorities of the family planning strategy
Deepen integration of family planning into national health policies, strategies and plans, including primary health care and universal health coverage
Increase sustainability of national family planning programmes with strengthened health systems, more domestic commitment to financing and more efficient use of resources
Improve quality of person-centred care and services by expanding contraceptive choices, counselling, health workforce skills, competency and quality of care at the service delivery point
Expand availability and access to family planning choices, including through self-care interventions and new contraceptive method innovations
Enhance agency and address discrimination to ensure the full range of family planning services for women and girls from marginalized groups and others at risk of being left behind
Strengthen and disaggregate data to assess barriers, identify opportunities and improve financial tracking, using tools to generate, analyse and apply evidence in advocacy
Build resilience and improve adaptation, in settings of humanitarian crisis and environmental change, starting with the Minimum Initial Service Package and including family planning in national policies, plans and strategies
Engage adolescents and youth as agents of change and provide rights-based and gender-responsive services, including contraception
What are “priority actions”?
This plan showcases a total of 18 priority actions to help you focus your efforts to accelerate progress in line with the family planning strategy. Each priority action is followed by a set of programmatic options for you to consider when designing work plans.
What are “programmatic options”?
The programmatic options are drawn from evidence-based and promising practices, including recommendations from High Impact Practices (HIPs). In many ways they can be described as “standardized interventions”. These interventions can be adapted and used by countries to operationalize the UNFPA Strategy for Family Planning and accelerate progress.
FOR QUICK REFERENCE
List of priority actions to accelerate family planning
Priority action 1.1
Advocate for and support the integration of family planning in policies and national development agendas and as a priority and key cross-cutting intervention for national development
Priority action 1.2
Strengthen financing mechanisms and increase investments for family planning programmes
Priority action 2.1
Improve the availability, acceptability, affordability and quality of human rights-based and gender-responsive family planning information and services
Priority action 2.2
Expand demand-side interventions aligned to the individual’s reproductive health intentions
Priority action 2.3
Strengthen the supply chain to ensure availability of a wide range of quality contraceptives to the last mile, including in humanitarian contexts
Priority action 3.1
Promote advocacy among key stakeholders (rights-holders and duty-bearers) around the human rights-based approach and gender-transformative approaches to family planning
Priority action 3.2
Expand expertise and strategic approaches for addressing barriers to equity for family planning including social and gender norms
Priority action 3.3
Ensure social participation to foster agency among women and girls and those furthest behind
Priority action 4.1
Expand information systems and mechanisms at the national and subnational level in order to capture relevant disaggregated data with a focus on inequities and marginalized groups
Priority action 4.2
Improve data analysis, visualization and dissemination
Priority action 4.3
Advocate for and support the development and implementation of accountability mechanisms at global, national and subnational levels to improve adherence to policies, frameworks and quality standards for family planning services
Priority action 5.1
Make disaggregated, up-to-date, quality data available across all phases of the humanitarian cycle
Priority action 5.2
Build the capacity of governments, health systems and partners to deliver quality family planning information and services across all phases of the humanitarian programme cycle
Priority action 5.3
Ensure timely availability of modern contraceptives to the last mile, across all phases of the humanitarian programme cycle
Priority action 5.4
Build resilience and strengthen health systems in countries experiencing humanitarian crises, or those at high risk of experiencing humanitarian crises
Priority action 6.1
Foster conducive legal and policy frameworks that create an enabling environment for all adolescents and young people to access contraceptive information, and adolescent- and youth-responsive services
Priority action 6.2
Increase demand for contraceptive services by adolescents and youth through improved agency and self-efficacy using innovative tools and approaches
Priority action 6.3
Strengthen individual and institutional capacity in facilitating access to people-centred services including contraceptives and information by adolescents and youth left behind