Measurement, Learning and Evaluation for the Urban Reproductive Health Initiative

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is launching its Family Planning and Reproductive Health (FP/RH) Strategy with the goal to increase modern contraceptive prevalence rates in selected urban areas through the Urban Reproductive Health Initiative (the "Initiative"). The Initiative will take place in five countries, two of which have been selected: Nigeria and Uttar Pradesh, India. The three remaining countries will include two in sub-Saharan Africa and another in South Asia. The Initiative involves Country Consortia who will target family planning services to the urban poor to reduce inequity, improve quality of and access to family planning services through integration and private sector programs, and with the aim to increase family planning use. A separate Measurement, Learning & Evaluation (MLE) grant will be issued to evaluate the effectiveness of the Initiative efforts in the five countries. CPC/UNC has been approached to respond to this MLE grant solicitation. The MLE grant will involve developing a core set of indicators and a study design to be used across all five countries. Working with consortium partners — the African Population and Health Research Center and the Population Reference Bureau, CPC/UNC will a) evaluate Initiative programs using a rigorous study design, b) build in-country capacity for monitoring and evaluation of urban family planning programs, and c) facilitate knowledge sharing and document best practices from the Initiative programs. This is a six-year project that will collect, analyze, and use data to inform family planning and reproductive health advocacy and programming of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and globally.

Principal Investigator: David K. Guilkey

CPC Fellow Investigators: Shelah S. Bloom, Siân L. Curtis, Ilene S. Speizer, John F. Stewart

Funding Source: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Grant Number: 52037

Funding Period: 01/01/09-01/11/15

Affiliated Research Projects:
• Measurement, Learning & Evaluation (MLE) Project for the Urban Reproductive Health Initiative