Population Council Research that makes a difference

Assessing Integration Methodology (AIM): A Handbook for Measuring and Assessing the Integration of Family Planning and Other Reproductive Health Services

Program managers and policymakers are interested in increasing links between family planning services and other related services that traditionally were provided separately. Despite the interest in linking or integrating services, there is little consensus on how best to configure services so as to link or combine them. The Assessing Integration Methodology (AIM) was developed by the Population Council to guide decisions regarding the feasibility, quality, and effectiveness of specific service combinations. The AIM handbook covers integration of family planning with the following services:

• HIV counseling and testing
• Postabortion care
• Antenatal care
• Detection and management of sexually transmitted infections
• Postpartum care

Decisionmakers can use the AIM handbook to assess the feasibility of linking services, identify programmatic or structural barriers to integration, pilot-test approaches to integrating services, evaluate the effect of linked or integrated services, and assess and evaluate the costs of models to integrate services.

The handbook includes data-collecting forms to support and evaluate integration efforts, including forms for client and provider interviews, service and equipment inventory, and other documentation forms. All materials can be downloaded as a PDF or Word documents (complete handbook; front matter; Section 1; Section 2; Section 3; Section 4; Section 5). For a CD of the handbook, e-mail publications@popcouncil.org.