Kenya had a large portfolio of PROGRESS work across five of the project’s seven technical areas: community-based family planning, integration of family planning with non-health sectors, mobile technologies for health, expanding the contraceptive method mix, and capacity building and crosscutting research utilization. The project built on strong relationships with the Kenya Ministry of Health’s (MOH’s) Division of Reproductive Health (DRH) and its National Coordinating Agency for Population and Development (NCAPD). It also worked with the national Family Planning Technical Working Group and a broad range of additional national and international partners. In May 2013, the Kenya office held an end-of-project meeting highlighting major accomplishments of the project, with a report of the meeting available here [PDF, 599 KB]. More details on the accomplishments include the following:

• Family planning costed implementation plan: PROGRESS coordinated with the DRH and partners to develop and launch a national family planning costed implementation plan describing five key interventions to increase contraceptive prevalence and the costs needed to implement them.
• Family planning services through agricultural field days: Pilot research to integrate health services into field days sponsored by Land O’Lakes dairy cooperatives in Kenya successfully linked underserved populations with the health services, including resupply of family planning methods.
• Partnership with the Green Belt Movement: Staff of the Green Belt Movement's population, health and environment project in Kenya were trained to teach volunteers how to integrate family planning discussions into their routine environmental activities.
• Expanding access to injectable contraceptives: PROGRESS collaborated on a demonstration project that led the MOH to launch a new policy allowing community health workers to provide injectable contraceptives.
• Leadership in national population conference: With support from PROGRESS, the NCAPD hosted a National Population Leaders Conference that led to a Plan of Action endorsed by Parliament and included in Kenya’s national population policy for 2011–2030.
• A pilot study in Kenya and Tanzania, summarized in this brief [PDF, 1.4 MB], demonstrated the acceptability, feasibility and potential behavioral impact of providing family planning information via text message on mobile phones. A second brief [PDF, 2.8 MB] describes the efforts of the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation to expand this work in Kenya.
• Preliminary results of a Sino-implant (II) study, available in this presentation [PDF, 554 KB] from a technical meeting in Washington, DC, showed that the new implant was safe, effective and acceptable in routine service-delivery settings in Kenya.
• PROGRESS conducted a study among postpartum women in Kenya to measure the uptake of the levonorgestrel intrauterine system compared with the uptake of other contraceptive methods. Preliminary results, available in this presentation [PDF, 565 KB] from a technical meeting in Washington, DC, showed that 16 percent of women chose the intrauterine system.
• With support from PROGRESS and additional partners, the DRH developed and began implementing a national training plan for long-acting and permanent methods of contraception. The goal of the five-year plan, available here [PDF, 1.4 MB], is to create demand for these services and expand provision by 2016.
• PROGRESS worked with the Kenya Division of Reproductive Health on a two-phase project to identify evidence-based adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health interventions in Kenya that can be initiated or scaled-up to meet the health needs of young people. A 2011 report of phase 1 is available here [PDF, 1 MB]. The Division of Reproductive Health's final report of the project is available here [PDF, 1.2 MB].

PROGRESS (Program Research for Strengthening Services) was a five-year project awarded to FHI 360 by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in June 2008. The project sought to improve access to family planning among underserved populations by providing global technical leadership and working in selected countries.