Universal & Adaptable Information, Education & Communication (IEC) Templates on Family Planning


 

 nursing mother

From May to August 2011, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Women’s Refugee Commission conducted several studies to document knowledge of family planning, beliefs and practices of refugees, as well as the state of service provision in select refugee settings. Specifically, the studies were conducted in Ali Addeh in Djibouti, Amman in Jordan, Eastleigh (Nairobi) in Kenya, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and Nakivale settlement in Uganda. The goal of the baseline studies was to support program planning and service delivery, and subsequently increase family planning uptake among women, men and adolescents.

One key finding was that many of the health facilities and community health workers lacked information, education and communications (IEC) materials to share with refugees on the benefits of family planning services and what methods are available for their use.

Based on the Women’s Refugee Commission’s previous work on behalf of the Reproductive Health Response in Crises (RHRC) Consortium to develop "universal" IEC materials on other reproductive health topics, the Women’s Refugee Commission designed six templates on family planning to aid service providers in serving clients.

Template A: Obtain family planning information, counseling and contraceptives from a health provider Template B: Family planning contributes to healthy families Template C: Explanation of family planning methods
Template D: How to use a male condom Template E: How to use the lactational ammenorhea method (LAM) Template F: When to use emergency contraception

The "universal templates" are available for agencies to draw in features that contextualize the images to their setting (such as hair, clothing). The "variation templates" are based on the “universal templates,” and have been adapted to represent four broad ethnic categories. The suggested text is available in English, and also Arabic, Burmese, Somali and Swahili to insert into the blank templates.

All images are based on a literature review of existing family planning-related IEC materials, many from development contexts. The materials have been reviewed by adolescents representing several displacement settings and practitioners of family planning, although the Women’s Refugee Commission solicits continued feedback.

Click here for the citations for all of the templates.

To access MISP-related IEC templates, please click here.

Click here to download the baseline study reports.

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For questions, please contact info@wrcommission.org.