The Integration of Family Planning and Childhood Immunization Services in Togo

Abstract

Improvements in the constellation of services in the African context are largely addressed through attaining better measures of service integration, which can be achieved through improved referral across categories of health programs. The use of an unobtrusive referral message that linked family planning and the Expanded Program of Immunizations (EPI) services was tested in an operations research study in Togo. The introduction of the referral message was accompanied by an 18-percent increase in awareness of available family planning services and an increase in the average monthly number of new family planning clients of 54 percent. These positive results indicate that the use of referral can have a significant and dramatic impact on family planning services in a relatively short time. In Togo, no evidence existed of a negative impact on EPI services, and a majority of the EPI providers reported satisfaction with the effect of the referral message at the close of the study.