Enhancing Client Access: Integrating Family Planning and HIV/AIDS Services in Rwanda
Through the Tides Africa Fund, IntraHealth documented the effectiveness of integrating family planning and HIV/AIDS services in Rwanda. Rwandan women between 15–49 years of age have an HIV infection rate of 3.6%—7.3% in urban areas—and many lack access to family planning services. By integrating family planning and HIV/AIDS services, IntraHealth aimed to:
Ensure that HIV-positive women receive available family planning information and services
Support the reproductive rights and fertility choices of HIV-positive women
Prevent new HIV infections by encouraging dual protection (use of a condom along with another contraceptive method)
Prevent unintended pregnancies of HIV-positive women and girls of reproductive age
Treat sexually transmitted infections
Reduce HIV transmission from mother to child
Decrease the number of AIDS orphans.
IntraHealth documented the process and progress of service integration at five selected sites. Service integration includes:
Convening a working group for oversight
Enhancing palliative care services in the selected sites
Documenting the process of integrating family planning and HIV/AIDS services
Collecting and analyzing health center HIV/AIDS/family planning data
Conducting supplementary targeted research
Reporting and disseminating findings.
The Tides Africa Fund is an initiative of the Tides Foundation in partnership with the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. The Fund aims to support program models that integrate, link or wrap-around family planning into HIV/AIDS service delivery. More information about the work of the Tides Foundation is available in the publication Making the Case for Integration: Tides Foundation Africa Family Planning and HIV Integration Fund.