Non-health programs that provide development assistance often have broad reach within their communities and support the values of self-reliance, empowerment and overall well-being. Many of these programs are also well positioned to reinforce the message that family planning can be an effective approach for increasing household wealth, reducing poverty and sustaining the environment. FHI 360’s PROGRESS project assessed several models for integrating family planning services and referrals into non-health programs, including microfinance, agricultural and environmental programs, and has summarized the findings in this report [PDF 823 KB]. This type of integration supports community-based family planning and can be scaled up with minimal incremental costs because it builds on program structures that are already in place. The PROGRESS project’s major accomplishments in this technical area include the following:

• Partnership with a Microfinance Organization: In India, PROGRESS partnered with the Network of Entrepreneurship & Economic Development (NEED) to test an intervention through which village health guides provided family planning messages and referrals.

• 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 health services, including resupply of family planning methods.

• Partnership with the Green Belt Movement: Staff of the Greenbelt 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.

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.