Hardee Associates, Arlington, VA, 22207, USA.
Avenir Health, Glastonbury, Connecticut, 06033, USA.
Gates Open Res. 2024 Mar 25;7:121. doi: 10.12688/gatesopenres.14856.2. eCollection 2023.
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic fears of severe disruptions to family planning (FP) and access to services abounded. This paper uses a unique data source, a special Supplement added to the 2021 round of the National Composite Index for Family Planning (NCIFP), to assess in depth the resilience of FP programs in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic across 70 countries spanning six regions.
The 2021 NCIFP included 961 key informants who were asked questions to assess interference in the countries' ability to achieve objectives, ability to maintain commitment to FP, and availability of information and services. Open ended responses added context.
All programs were affected; the magnitude of effects varies by region and country. While the average resilience score, at 47 out of 100, implies middling levels of resilience, further analysis showed that despite interference in many components of programming, with some exceptions, the COVID-19 pandemic generally did not diminish government commitment to FP and programs remained resilient in providing access to services. Common themes mentioned by 178 respondents (18.5% of respondents) included: fear of infection; disruption of services / difficulty with lockdown and travel restrictions; staff / facilities diverted to COVID-19; access to reproductive health services and contraceptive methods affected; shifts in services / outreach; interference with logistics & supplies, training & supervision, and M&E; lack of attention to FP/sexual reproductive health; financing reduced or diverted; and effects on existing partnerships. A strong enabling environment for FP, which the NCIFP is designed to measure, was positively correlated with continued government commitment and access to contraceptive methods during COVID-19.
These findings are instructive for programming: it will face challenges and 'interference' when unanticipated shocks like COVID-19 occur, with strong FP programs best prepared to exhibit resilience.
在 COVID-19 大流行初期，人们对计划生育（FP）严重中断和服务获取的担忧甚嚣尘上。本文利用一个独特的数据来源，即计划生育综合指数（NCIFP）2021 年一轮调查中的一个特别补充内容，评估了在 COVID-19 大流行期间，跨越六大区域的 70 个国家的 FP 项目的恢复力。
2021 年 NCIFP 调查包括 961 名关键知情者，他们被问及问题，以评估各国实现目标的能力干扰、对 FP 的承诺保持能力以及信息和服务的可用性。开放式回答增加了背景。
所有项目都受到了影响；影响的程度因区域和国家而异。虽然平均恢复力评分为 100 分中的 47 分，表明恢复力处于中等水平，但进一步的分析表明，尽管在编程的许多组成部分都受到干扰，但除了一些例外，COVID-19 大流行并没有削弱政府对 FP 的承诺，而且项目仍然有能力提供服务。178 名受访者（18.5%的受访者）提到了一些共同的主题，包括：对感染的恐惧；服务中断/封锁和旅行限制困难；工作人员/设施转向 COVID-19；生殖健康服务和避孕方法的获取受到影响；服务/外展工作的转变；物流/供应、培训/监督和 M&E 的干扰；对 FP/性生殖健康的关注不足；资金减少或转移；以及对现有伙伴关系的影响。NCIFP 旨在衡量的 FP 有利环境与政府在 COVID-19 期间继续承诺和获得避孕方法呈正相关。
这些发现对编程具有启示意义：当像 COVID-19 这样的意外冲击发生时，它将面临挑战和“干扰”，而强大的 FP 项目最有能力表现出恢复力。
