PROGRESS activities in Senegal focused on three of the project’s seven technical areas: community-based family planning, expanding the contraceptive method mix, and capacity building and crosscutting research utilization. In particular, PROGRESS worked with a variety of partners to expand the method mix within the country’s community-based family planning program and to build the capacity of the Ministry of Health’s Division of Reproductive Health (DSR) to implement evidence-based policies and programs. Selected accomplishments include the following:

• Acceptability of Depo-subQ in Uniject: Working with the Ministry of Health, PATH and additional partners, PROGRESS conducted research on the acceptability of introducing the subcutaneous delivery of injectable contraceptives with the Uniject™ device in Senegal. Results of the research, which was also conducted in Uganda, will inform the introduction and potential scale-up of this new product, called Sayana® Press.
• In 2012, stakeholders in Senegal worked with the Ministry of Health, FHI 360’s PROGRESS project and the consultant group McKinsey & Company to develop a national family planning costed implementation plan, called the National Family Planning Action Plan 2012-2015 (NFPAP) [French, PDF, 3 MB]. The Action Plan outlines six priority action areas, including expanding community-based family planning through task shifting, a technical area supported by PROGRESS in Senegal. The NFPAP was officially launched in November 2012 in Dakar in the presence of the Minister of Health. Regional dissemination meetings organized and supported by PROGRESS allowed districts to develop customized implementation plans. FHI 360 continues to support the implementation and monitoring of the NFPAP with funding from USAID through the Advancing Partners and Communities Project.
• PROGRESS coordinated an evaluation of a pilot program of community-based access to oral contraceptive pills. The evaluation showed that the pilot program, implemented by ChildFund, was both feasible and acceptable. PROGRESS supported the DSR to disseminate the findings to key stakeholders, including the in-country scale-up committee, which approved expanding the practice within the country.
• PROGRESS worked with the DSR; Centre Régional de Formation, de Recherche et de Plaidoyer en Santé de la Reproduction (CEFOREP); and ChildFund to conduct a pilot study [PDF, 1 MB] of distribution of injectables to demonstrate the ability of community health workers to safely provide injections. Plans for scale-up are underway.
• PROGRESS supported a high-level staff person within the DSR and provided the resources the division needed to support a policy change to permit community-based distribution of pills and injectables, to regularly convene family planning implementing partners for knowledge management and to develop the national family planning action plan.
• The Senegal DSR, with the World Learning Grants Solicitation and Management (GSM) and PROGRESS, convened a Francophone West Africa Community-Based Family Planning Partners’ Meeting to advocate and build capacity for the introduction of community-based family planning, including injectable contraceptives, as a global standard of practice in the Ouagadougou Partnership countries.

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.