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MSI/Arete/Patrick Meinhardt
Insight

Kenya’s revised National Family Planning Guidelines: A bold step towards more inclusive and gender-responsive programming

The update and launch of Kenya's new National Family Planning Guidelines mark a significant step in enhancing reproductive choice and autonomy.

10 December 2024
Geoffrey Okumu

Family planning (FP) is essential for improving the health of mothers and children, empowering women, driving economic growth and supporting environmental sustainability. It is also a cornerstone of universal health coverage.

Kenya has made great strides in improving access to family planning services, with the national unmet need falling from 18% in 2014 to 13.9% in 2022. But these figures conceal stark regional and demographic disparities, highlighting the need for the government to do more so that all Kenyans have access to equitable, high quality family planning and reproductive health services.

Kenya’s Ministry of Health recently updated its National Family Planning Guidelines (NFPG) to align them with global standards, including the World Health Organization’s (WHO) updated Medical Eligibility Criteria for Contraceptive Use and the 2022 WHO Global Handbook for FP providers. Supported by Options a consortium partner in UK aid funded Delivering Equitable and Sustainable Increases in Family Planning (DESIP) programme, this review reflects both global and national advancements in family planning.

Most importantly, these guidelines expand Kenya’s family planning service package and introduces new approaches to service delivery. The changes mark a significant step in enhancing reproductive choice and autonomy for all citizens. Here’s a summary of the key changes of this latest edition:

Infertility: A critical inclusion

Infertility, defined as the inability to conceive after 12 months of regular, unprotected sexual intercourse, poses significant physical, emotional, and social challenges. Globally and in Kenya, infertility affects 10–15% of couples, with male infertility accounting for 60% of all cases in the country, according to the Kenya Association of Urological Surgeons. Cultural factors and social stigma around infertility further complicate the condition and although infertility affects both men and women, the blame is most often placed on women as views perpetuated by persistent gender inequality link a women’s value on their ability to reproduce.

The updated guidelines now provide healthcare providers with comprehensive, evidence-based strategies for diagnosing, managing and supporting individuals and couples experiencing infertility. They identify factors that contribute to both female and male infertility and outline a thorough approach to diagnosing it, including through patients’ medical history, physical examinations as well as other relevant diagnostic tests. They also recommend preventative measures such as lifestyle changes, regular screenings for sexually transmitted infections (STI) and vaccinations for human papillomavirus (HPV) and rubella.

Counselling is also emphasized as a critical tool in managing infertility, offering emotional support and relationship guidance through complex decision-making processes.

Self-care: Enabling individuals to take control over their own reproductive choices

The WHO defines self-care as “the ability of individuals, families, and communities to promote health, prevent disease, maintain health, and to cope with illness and disability with or without the support of a health-care provider.”

Self-care is a natural fit for family planning as it includes aspects of sexual and reproductive health, such as contraception, abortion, STI testing and pregnancy-care. It should therefore play a key role in ensuring that Kenya achieves universal health coverage.

The updated NFPG emphasizes self-care as a cornerstone of family planning, providing individuals—particularly women and adolescent girls—with tools to manage their reproductive health needs independently, either at home or in the community. New medical and digital health innovations further empower users to take control of their health while still receiving support from health systems.

High Impact Practices (HIPs): Targeted interventions to drive progress in family planning

In regions such as northern Kenya, the modern contraceptive prevalence rate (mCPR) is as low as 3%. The updated guidelines advocate for adopting Impact Practices (HIPs) – evidence-based family planning practices, vetted by experts, that have proven effective in increasing contraceptive uptake in diverse settings – to overcome these gaps and to speed up progress toward achieving Kenya’s goal of a 66% mCPR by 2030.

The guidelines are a crucial step towards delivering universal health coverage and reproductive health for all

The 7th edition of Kenya’s National Family Planning Guidelines introduce bold, evidence-driven interventions to address unmet family planning need by incorporating new data, including infertility, strengthening supply chains and promoting self-care and high-impact practices.

They mark a crucial step towards providing all Kenyans, and especially women and girls, with access to comprehensive, equitable, and high-quality reproductive healthcare and are set to advance Kenya’s journey toward achieving its FP2030 commitments and universal health coverage.

 

Countries
Kenya
Funders
UK aid
Focus areas
Reproductive health and Family Planning
Capabilities
Health Commodity Security Health Financing