Population Council Research that makes a difference

RESPOND is a five-year USAID Leader with Associates Cooperative Agreement that was awarded in October 2008 to EngenderHealth and its partners. RESPOND is led by EngenderHealth in partnership with six other organizations, including the Population Council. Its overall objective is to increase the use of high-quality reproductive health and family planning services—with a focus on long-acting and permanent methods (LAPMs)—to address unmet need for family planning (including healthy timing, spacing, and limited childbearing).

Mayer Hashi ("Smiling Mother") is an associate award of RESPOND being implemented in Bangladesh to improve the use of LAPMs and some selected maternal health interventions. The Mayer Hashi project is being implemented by EngenderHealth in partnership with the Bangladesh Center for Communication Programs and the Population Council. This project began in May 2009 and takes place in 21 low-performing districts covering approximately 40 million people.

Population Council focus

The Population Council is collaborating with RESPOND at the global and country levels, specifically in Bangladesh through an associate award issued under the RESPOND leader agreement. The main areas of contribution for the Council at the global level include:

• Identifying and applying promising practices to support the expanded use of LAPMs;
• Compiling, analyzing, and widely disseminating data on key topics related to LAPMs;
• Generating evidence to validate strategies, approaches, and tools for enhancing use of LAPMs;
• Conducting relevant programmatic research to inform LAPM programming and services; and
• Enabling a supportive environment for advancing the use of LAPMs and other RH/FP services.
  
  

Outcomes of this project include analytical findings that are appropriately tailored and addressed to government, religious, community, civil society, and health professional leaders.

Council staff based in different offices are engaged in this effort. With funding from the RESPOND Associate Award, the Council will provide technical assistance in the design and implementation of an evaluation of RESPOND’s service-delivery model in Bangladesh. As part of RESPOND-Bangladesh, the Council aims to achieve three main results:

1. Strengthened effective delivery and increased/sustained performance of LAPM services through holistic and evidence-based approaches;
2. Increased demand and sustained use of LAPMs through evidence-based and innovative approaches; and
3. Knowledge generated, organized, and disseminated to strengthen commitment, policy support, and a positive environment for LAPM services.

 

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Offsite links

• The RESPOND Project Web site
• The RESPOND Project in Bangladesh