Delivering Equitable and Sustainable Increases in Family Planning, Kenya

The Delivering Equitable and Sustainable Increases in Family Planning (DESIP) programme ensured more people had access to and used family planning services across 19 counties in Kenya.

Its aim was to reduce inequalities to accessing family planning by ensuring availability of and demand for family planning commodities through the sustainable involvement of the private and public sectors.

The DESIP consortium was led by Population Services Kenya and includes African Medical and Research Foundation, Health Right Kenya, Faith2Action, Population Services International, Voluntary Service Overseas Kenya and Options.

We led on increasing national ownership and sustainability of family planning by strengthening government stewardship and ensuring that commitments are delivered at both national and county level.

The 19 counties in which the programme worked were divided into five clusters and from each cluster one county was selected as a ‘learning lab county’. This innovative ‘learning lab’ approach supported our partners to scale up interventions that had proven to be successful.

By the end of the programme, the aim was for national and sub-national governments to have invested enough in family planning to deliver on their commitments, and for policies to be in place to ensure lasting change.

Our approach

At national level and within the five learning lab counties, our work focused on:

• Policy and planning by ensuring relevant policies and legislative frameworks were in place and that national and county Costed Implementation Plans for family planning are developed, implemented and monitored.
• Financing for family planning, including building capacity for programme-based budgeting and budget tracking, implementing strategies for a total market approach and advocating for allocation of more resources towards family planning.
• Family planning commodity security, including improving public sector commodity management by enhancing national and county level capacity for family planning commodity quantification, forecasting, supply planning and pipeline monitoring.
• Evidence and accountability, supporting use of evidence to hold government accountable for family planning and reproductive health commitments, and to strengthen advocacy effectiveness among civil society networks.

Results

1. Five national reproductive health policies, strategies and guidelines or plans disseminated. One of these is the National Family Planning Costed Implementation Plan (2021-2025) and an accompanying summary version, to support dissemination and stakeholder engagement.
2. Worked alongside government, donors and other partners to agree a matched funding arrangement that would see the Government of Kenya progressively taking ownership of their family planning commodity financing (read the technical brief here).
3. Trained 25 civil society coalitions in learning lab counties in budget advocacy.  As a result, coalitions are actively advocating for an increase in additional allocation in the budget for family planning.