With funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, FHI 360 and other partners, including EVIHDAF, implemented the SMART-HIPs project in multiple countries. The project which ended on September 2024, aimed to inform and harmonize HIPs measurement standards and generate evidence to help countries reflect on and optimize the implementation and scale-up of high-impact practices (HIPs) in family planning (FP).

The project was implemented in Burkina Faso, Nigeria (and India), with an additional assessment of the HIPs landscape at the Ouagadougou Partnership level. SMART-HIPs project complements a parallel activity currently funded by USAID as part of FHI 360’s Research for Scalable Solutions (R4S) project in Mozambique, Nepal, and Uganda.

Study aim and objectives

The aim of the proposed assessment was two-fold: 1) generate evidence to help reflect on and optimize implementation of HIPs and 2) inform harmonized, globally and locally relevant measurement standards for HIPs. Assessing the HIPs landscape in OP member countries so as to produce data to promote better regional coordination around the implementation and expansion of these practices.

Study Approach

The SMART-HIPs research project examined HIP implementation through a replicable country program approach, focusing on five HIPs evaluated in R4S projects:

• Three proven service delivery HIPs:
• Community Health Workers – CHWs: integrate trained, equipped, and supported CHWs into the health system;
• Post-abortion family planning – PAFP: proactively offering voluntary contraceptive counseling and services at the same time and place women receive post-abortion care at health facilities;
• Immediate postpartum family planning – IPPFP: providing contraceptive counseling and services as part of facility-based delivery care prior to discharge.
• One promising HIP for service delivery – Pharmacies and Depots: train and support depot and pharmacy staff to provide a wider range of FP information and contraceptive methods;
• One proven HIP for SBC (Mass media – MM): using mass media channels to promote responsible reproductive behavior.

High Impact Practices (HIPs) at national level

The evaluation of HIPs in Family planning was conducted in three pilot countries: Mozambique, Nepal and Uganda, with a focus on HIPs linked to service delivery. The SMART-HIPs project extended this approach to Burkina Faso and Nigeria through EVIHDAF and to India (FHI 360 Nepal), selecting specific HIPs after discussions with stakeholders and according to available information, time and budget constraints.

• In Burkina Faso, the study Supporting Measurement and Replication Techniques for Family Planning High Impact Practices: An Assessment of the Scale, Reach, Quality and Cost of Implementation was conducted in the Centre and Hauts-Bassins regions of Burkina Faso and covered two HIPs (Immediate Postpartum Family Planning and Mass Media).
• In Nigeria, the study Supporting Measurement and Replication Techniques for Family Planning High Impact Practices: An Assessment of the Scale, Reach, Quality and Cost of Implementation was implemented in Kaduna and Lagos states and focused on two service delivery HIPs (post-abortion family planning, as well as drug shops/pharmacies) and one social and behavioral change HIP (mass media).

High Impact Practices (HIPs) in Ouagadougou Partnership (OP) countries

EVIHDAF, in partnership with FHI 360, conducted in the OP region, a study on Supporting the Measurement and Replication of High-Impact Practices in Family Planning: An Assessment of the HIP Landscape in OP Countries, The Ouagadougou Partnership is a regional initiative aimed at advancing family planning in francophone West Africa by addressing unmet contraceptive needs. While the governments of the nine member countries have endorsed the use of High-Impact Practices (HIPs), the progress of their implementation was insufficiently documented.

Dissemination & Findings

In Burkina Faso, findings were presented during a dissemination workshop held with the Technical Working Group on Reproductive Health on February 29, 2024. Another workshop conducted with the Technical Working Group on Post-Partum Family Planning was held on August 10, 2024, targeted HIPs explored during project implementation.

In Nigeria, findings were presented during in-country dissemination activities were held in August and September 2024.

At the OP level, after the dissemination of findings from the landscape analysis to OP Coordination Unit and countries was held on June 20, 2024, a global webinar was organized online on July 24, 2024

Study results were equally presented during Global Convenings organized on “Advancing measurement of HIPs – Scale and reach“ held on May 14 & 15, 2024, and on “Advancing Measurement of HIPs – Quality of implementation”, held on July 16 & 17, 2024.