The Malawi Community-based Family Planning and HIV/AIDS Services project, funded by USAID/Malawi under the TASC III Global Health indefinite quantity contract, increased access to high-quality community-based health services, strengthened contraceptive delivery systems, expanded contraceptive options for women, and advocated for the integration of HIV/AIDS services into local health facilities. The project also worked to improve healthy behavior through mass media campaigns, locally-developed video dramas, and other mediums to reach rural populations.

Together with prime contractor Management Sciences for Health and partner Population Services International, Futures Group is implemented the project in eight districts: Karonga, Nkhotakota, Kasungu, Salima, Balaka, Chikwawa, Mangochi, and Phalombe. Futures Group focused on policy development and high-level advocacy actions within the project, providing overall technical vision and guidance on policies regarding access to family planning and HIV/AIDS services.

Key Accomplishments

• To increase access to Depot Medroxyprogesterone Acetate (DMPA)—the most popular contraceptive among rural women—the project team worked with the Ministry of Health to train health surveillance assistants to administer injectable contraceptives in the hardest to reach areas of Malawi.
   
• Collaborated with the Ministry of Health’s Reproductive Health Unit to develop policy and guidelines for community-based injectable contraceptive services provision, disseminated in January 2009.  Malawi was the first country in Africa to have such policy and guidelines. The use of health surveillance assistants, who are government employees, is also unique and has proved a very good model for ensuring sustainability.
   
• Conducted policy landscape analyses to identify additional policy barriers to family planning and HIV/AIDS services, with the intention of removing identified barriers. For example, the project successfully advocated for deregulation of oral contraceptives to facilitate community distribution. 
   
• To improve access to family planning and HIV/AIDS services at the community level, Futures Group worked with Muslim leaders to address misconceptions and misunderstandings about the interpretation of Islamic teachings.  At a national conference in 2009, Muslim leaders developed resolutions to clarify Islam’s stance on family planning and HIV/AIDS. Futures Group and national Muslim organizations developed IEC materials disseminated at a follow-on conference in 2011 and through district-level workshops in Balaka and Mangochi.