17
INTRODUCED
17 YEARS AGO
60
APPROVED IN NEARLY
60 COUNTRIES
?
BUT KNOWLEDGE AND
USE REMAIN LOW
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“Achieving health for all includes empowering and educating people to become active decision-makers in their own health. That’s what self-care is all about.”
— Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organization
Today, more than 218 million women of reproductive age in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) who want to avoid pregnancy don’t use modern contraceptives. Each year, 111 million unintended pregnancies occur in LMICs, accounting for 49% of all pregnancies in those countries, which include sub-Saharan Africa. Limited contraceptive options and barriers to access are known to significantly increase women’s risk of experiencing maternal health complications and unsafe abortions. Self-care methods such as self-inject contraceptives—which can offer women greater control, convenience, and the ability to use discreetly—can help change that.
Injectables are already the most popular group of contraceptives in sub-Saharan Africa and self-inject contraceptives have already been approved for use in more than 70 countries. However, low levels of awareness and limited provider capacity have kept self-inject from fulfilling its potential—until now. DISC is rapidly scaling up demand generation activities with consumers and empathy-based training for providers to equip them to offer self-inject as part of the method mix. Learn More.
INTRODUCED
17 YEARS AGO
APPROVED IN NEARLY
60 COUNTRIES
BUT KNOWLEDGE AND
USE REMAIN LOW
In partnership with the Self-Care Trailblazers Group, DISC has helped elevate self-care integration as top policy goal for Ministries of Health. In both Nigeria and Uganda we supported MOH-led task forces to develop national self-care guidelines and strategies in line with WHO recommendations. We are currently partnering with national and subnational governments and other key stakeholders to roll out supplemental self-inject training materials and strengthen data reporting. Increasingly, the global community of practice recognizes that self-care interventions not only have the potential to make quality care more accessible to more people—but can also make health systems more efficient.
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