Population Council Research that makes a difference

Identifying service-delivery problems;
testing new programmatic solutions

Operations research (OR) identifies service-delivery problems and tests new programmatic solutions to these problems. An important objective of OR is to provide program managers and policy decisionmakers with the information they need to improve and expand existing services. Increasingly, issues of gender, empowerment, and life-long reproductive health affect the way in which service-delivery problems are defined and solutions developed.

OR employs many methodologies in a process that includes five basic steps: (1) problem identification and diagnosis; (2) strategy selection; (3) strategy experimentation and evaluation; (4) information dissemination; and (5) information utilization.

History of OR

Field-based research studies have been experimentally testing and evaluating innovative ways to deliver family planning and reproductive health services in developing countries since 1974, when the first OR project was funded by the US Agency for International Development.

The Population Council builds on work conducted in over 40 countries since the mid-1980s through the Council's Operations Research and Technical Assistance (OR/TA) projects in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean.

Resources

Developing regional operations research training capacity in South Asia (PDF)
FRONTIERS Final Report
Khan, M.E.; Foreit, Jim; Roychowdhury, Sohini; Ram, F.; Shekhar, Chander
Publication date: 2007

Willingness to pay surveys for setting prices for reproductive health products and services: A user’s manual (revised edition) (PDF) 
FRONTIERS Report
Foreit, Karen G. Fleischman; Foreit, James R.
Publication date: 2004

Evaluating operations research utilization: Guidelines for assessing process and impact (PDF)
FRONTIERS Report
Marin, M. Celeste; Bertrand, Jane T.
Publication date: 2003

Expanding capacity for operations research in reproductive health: Summary report of a consultative meeting (PDF)
Report of a meeting co-sponsored by Population Council/ FRONTIERS and WHO, Geneva, Switzerland, 10–12 December 2001
Publication date: 2003

Using operations research to strengthen programmes for encouraging abandonment of female genital cutting: Report of a consultative meeting on methodological issues for FGC research, April 9–11, 2002, Nairobi, Kenya (PDF)
FRONTIERS Report
Publication date: 2003

Designing HIV/AIDS Intervention Studies: An Operations Research Handbook (PDF)
Fisher, Andrew A.; Foreit, James R.
Publication date: 2002

La recherche opérationnelle en planification familiale: Un recueil d'articles
Foreit, James R.; Frejka, Tomas (eds.)
Publication date: 2001

Strengthening reproductive health services in Africa through operations research (PDF)
Africa OR/TA Project II Final Report
Publication date: 1999

Family Planning Operations Research: A Book of Readings (PDF) (PDF en español)
Foreit, James R.; Frejka, Tomas (eds.)
Publication date: 1998

Handbook for Family Planning Operations Research Design (PDF)
Fisher, Andrew A.; Laing, John E.; Stoeckel, John E.; Townsend, John W.
Publication date: 1998

Methods for costing family planning services (PDF)
Janowitz, Barbara; Bratt, John H.
Publication date: 1994