The County Government of Uasin Gishu on Tuesday held a dissemination and planning workshop to provide feedback on the Family Planning Plus (FP+) project, which began in 2020 and targeted 24 health facilities throughout the county.

The FP+ program aims to improve family planning services and empower women to make informed reproductive health decisions.

FP+ is a pioneering family planning counselling approach that integrates the evidence-based intervention known as ARCHES (Assess, Respect, Choose, and Empower for Safe Reproductive Health). This strategy addresses reproductive coercion and intimate partner violence (IPV) through balanced counselling methods.

The study aims to incorporate these crucial elements to create a supportive environment where women can safely disclose experiences of IPV and receive education to enhance their ability to utilize family planning effectively.

The counselling is delivered by trained family planning providers using a specialized mobile app, which includes features designed to not only increase the accessibility of family planning services but also to improve the overall quality of care provided to clients.

While officially opening the workshop, County Executive Committee Member for Health Services Dr Abraham Serem noted the positive outcomes observed since the project commenced.

“Among the 24 health facilities involved in the study, we had 45 health providers participating in both the interventional cohort and an additional 45 in the control cohort. In the interventional group, a total of 2,002 clients were served and 1,807 clients in the control group. This has significantly increased the uptake of family planning services across the county,” stated Dr. Serem.

Dr. Serem also noted the importance of empowering women to make informed choices regarding family planning, emphasizing that the objective is to ensure that every woman has the opportunity to make adequate decisions about her reproductive health.

Representing the Director of Health Services, Dr. Wenseslaus Kuria noted that the findings from a randomized controlled trial involving 3,809 female family planning clients from the 24 participating health facilities is poised to improve family planning uptake, elevate the quality of family planning care, bolster women’s confidence in using contraceptives amidst reproductive coercion and potentially reduce incidents of intimate partner violence.

Present were; Director of Gender Joywin Sang and County Reproductive Health Cordinator Hellen Siria.