This case study details the “Accelerating Contraceptive Use Project” managed by MSH in Afghanistan between 2004 and 2006. Through the project, four Afghan NGOs, MSH and the Ministry of Public Health worked with CHWs to promote various contraceptive methods for birth spacing. Three components helped the project achieve success at both the community and policy levels: contraceptive technical expertise in designing safe and effective approaches to meeting birth-spacing needs; knowledge obtained from multiple international programs; and understanding of the community.

This toolkit provides a variety of resources that form a platform for strengthening organizations’ capacity to promote community-based access to injectable contraceptives and to advocate for national policy and service delivery guidelines. The components of the toolkit address program planning, implementation, evaluation and scale-up. It provides evidence and background material to support community delivery of injectable contraception, shares country experiences and advocacy strategies and provides information on organizations that are global leaders in this area.

This reference book is written primarily for CHWs or other village health workers living far from medical centers, in places where there are no health facilities. It covers basic diagnosis and treatment of a wide array of common conditions. It is written in basic language, and includes lots of visual references, so that people without much formal education can use it; it has been translated into more than 80 languages and used in over 100 countries.

This short commentary discusses the Lady Health Worker (LHW) program in Pakistan. LHWs serve as an important link between community and health facilities, providing both preventative and curative care. However, additional improvements are suggested that could further facilitate a thriving program. These include: incentives for LHWs (improving salaries, timely contract renewals and providing transport), periodic reevaluation of program goals, integrating the LHW program into the main government system and improving supervision.

This brief outlines how community based distribution (CBD) of injectable DMPA (Depo-Provera) can be effective. It posits key elements to ensure CBD success: workers must have consistent links to supplies, a system for follow up of clients to ensure they receive their injections every three months and training in how to counsel new DMPA users about side effects, and knowledge of how to rule out pregnancy.  

This study compared the safety and quality of contraceptive injections given by community-based health workers with those given by clinic-based nurses in a rural Nakasongola District, Uganda. A nonrandomized community trial compared provision of injectable Depo Provera (DMPA) by community reproductive health workers with routine DPMA provision at health units. Ninety-five percent of CHW clients were "satisfied" or "highly satisfied" with services. There were no serious injection site problems in either group.

This report describes a study conducted in Ghana to explore utilizing Community Health Officers (CHOs) and Community Health Volunteers (CHVs) to increase interest in using IUDs and other long-acting and permanent methods. The study utilized a pre- and post-test quasi-experimental design and included two intervention groups (where CHOs and CHVs were given additional training and support) and one comparison group.