USAID's Family Planning Guiding Principles and U.S. Legislative and Policy Requirements

Family Planning Compliance Activities Worldwide

USAID works with Missions, implementing partners, and other host country counterparts to track compliance with family planning requirements as part of its routine monitoring of program implementation. Some activities include the following:

• Compliance Support for Missions: USAID/Washington helps its field Missions track family planning programs, monitor compliance with requirements, and develop stronger and more systematic reporting systems. USAID/Washington has established a unit to assist with these efforts and to develop tools and resources to facilitate compliance monitoring.
  
  
• Improved Communication: USAID/Washington engages in direct dialogue on an annual basis with all Missions that support family planning projects to discuss family planning requirements and provide tools for monitoring compliance with them.
  
  
• Systematic Training for USAID Staff: USAID/Washington recognizes the importance of routine, annual trainings on family planning requirements for all health staff. USAID/Washington conducts training for new foreign service officers, field staff traveling to Washington, and staff attending regional and technical meetings. Often, Washington-based health staff who travel to the field provide Mission health staff with training on the requirements.
  
  
• Assistance for Implementing Partner Staff: USAID/Washington also recognizes the importance of providing support for its family planning implementing partners. Currently, USAID/Washington works with partners to assist with training activities, answer questions, and discuss monitoring activities.

Additional measures are taken to ensure compliance with specific requirements. USAID works with providers to ensure that essential information on contraceptive methods is available at service delivery points of projects receiving USAID assistance. Since 1999, over 200,000 posters that detail the risks and benefits of all available family planning methods have been translated into more than 15 languages and distributed around the world.

USAID will continue all of these efforts into the future to assist Missions and implementing partners to effectively monitor their programs' compliance with applicable family planning requirements and guidelines.