GUIDE TO IDENTIFYING AND DOCUMENTING BEST PRACTICES IN FAMILY PLANNING PROGRAMMES
We are pleased to share with you the recently published Guide to Identifying and Documenting Best Practices in Family Planning Programs.
The guide is based on two documents guiding the documentation of best practices, currently used in Africa: the WHO Regional Office for Africa Guide for documenting and sharing “best practices” in health programs (2008) and the Guide for documenting good practices (2015), developed by the West African Health Organization (WAHO), Implementing Best Practices (IBP) Initiative, United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW).
The WHO Regional Office for Africa guide was developed to disseminate a series of country experiences on the planning, implementation, and monitoring of health programs and services that can be considered as “best practices.” the IBP Initiative partnered with WAHO to prepare and disseminate a “Good practices in public health” documentation tool to support the WAHO Good Practices Forum and the documentation of best practices in the West Africa Region.
A word on Best Practices as defined in the new guide
“Best practices” are exemplary public health practices that have achieved results, and which need to be scaled up so as to benefit more people. The expansion and institutionalization of successfully tested best practices requires strategic planning. There are several creative and constructive actions by people and organizations in the health sector to improve the health outcomes of people. Disseminating knowledge of such actions widely may prevent the repetition of mistakes and loss of valuable time. Thus, the main rationale for documenting and sharing “best practices” is to enable persons and organizations working in the health sector to avoid reinventing the wheel; to improve performance and avoid the mistakes of others.
The document can also be accessed in this link:
http://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/publications/family_planning/best-practices-fp-programs/en/
Please do not hesitate to contact Asa Cuzin, cuzina@who.int, or Ados May, ados.may@phi.org, at the IBP Secretariat if you have any questions.
Best regards,
Ados
Ados V. May, MPA | IBP Initiative Secretariat | Senior Technical Advisor
1299 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Suite 550 | Washington, DC 20004 | www.ibpinitiative.org
o: +1 202 808 3846 | m: +1 202 999 8816 | email: ados.may@phi.org | Skype: adosmay