Engaging Communities for Reproductive Health and Family Planning

Community engagement is critical for encouraging positive behaviors and addressing reproductive health and family planning (RH/FP) social and structural barriers. Community engagement can foster increased uptake of RH/FP services, improved provider-client interactions, and enhanced partnership and social accountability between health and community systems.

This is a skills-building course for Ministry of Health staff, NGO program managers, and donor organization personnel to learn how to work with communities to build local strengths and support community-led action for RH/FP issues. The course consists of six sessions structured around the adapted Community Action Cycle. It outlines key steps for designing and managing effective community engagement programming, including the process, principles, and values of community engagement and the time, staffing, and budget needed to carry out community engagement for RH/FP. Additional reading materials and tools help the learner more deeply understand and apply course content.