Population Council Research that makes a difference

This project identified selected activities from a previous Council project and institutionalized these activities within the study sites. The Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH), in collaboration with FRONTIERS, provided technical training to enable staff from the participating ministries to sustain the intervention in the experimental locations and introduce it in two former control sites.

Given the success of the pilot intervention and the interest by the community and the ministries to incorporate the programs into routine operations, a follow-on project was initiated from April 2003 to April 2005. This project facilitated the "adopting and institutionalizing" of the reproductive health and HIV/AIDS activities at the district level throughout Western Province and created conditions for the replication in additional provinces. During the follow-on "institutionalization" period, more than 1,100 personnel were trained among the three ministries as implementers of the project's activities, including peer educators, heads of schools, guidance and counseling teachers, public health technicians, and religious community leaders. From May 2005 to April 2006, with additional support from USAID/Kenya, the project was expanded throughout eight additional districts in Western Province. During this time, sustainable mechanisms were created to facilitate inter-ministerial cooperation at the province, district, and division levels. The scale-up project reached 177,945 people throughout the province and trained an additional 1,951 personnel.

From May 2006 to May 2007, the intervention was "replicated" in two additional provinces, Eastern and Nyanza, in preparation for expansion to the remaining districts in years to come. To support the interventions, FRONTIERS provided guidance and support to two districts of Eastern Province, while PATH is taking the lead in two districts of Nyanza Province. Staff from both organizations collaborated at the national level to assist the three ministries in incorporating the components into their standard protocols and policies. To date, the project has trained 641 ministry personnel in both provinces as implementers.