About Us

DISC is five-year project funded by the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation that supports women to assume greater power and control over their sexual and reproductive health by using contraceptive self-care methods like self-inject—which can help her to achieve her life goals by delaying or preventing pregnancy if she so chooses. In partnership with Ministries of Health, healthcare provider networks, and other key stakeholders, we are integrating self-care methods into health systems, bringing care closer to consumers and amplifying their voice, choice and agency.
We support women to initiate, adopt, sustain use of, and advocate for self-injection as a cornerstone of sexual and reproductive healthcare to prevent unintended pregnancy.

“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

Women Deserve More

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.

CONTRACEPTIVE SELF-INJECTION IS A GAME-CHANGER

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.

17

INTRODUCED
17 YEARS AGO

60

APPROVED IN NEARLY
60 COUNTRIES

?

BUT KNOWLEDGE AND
USE REMAIN LOW

INTEGRATING SELF-CARE into health systems

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.

Partners & Stakeholders

Consortium Members

  • SFH-Nigeria
  • Banja La Mtsogolo
  • Marie Stopes International
  • Reproductive Choices
  • Family Health Society – Malawi
  • Innovations for Choice and Autonomy

Key Collaborators

  • Ministry of Health Uganda
  • Ministry of Health Nigeria
  • CHAI
  • Living Goods
  • Access Collaborative
  • ARFH
  • FHI-360

Partnering Agencies

  • Bean Interactive
  • Busara
  • Triple C Advisory
  • Fieldstone Helms
  • Viamo
  • Blu Flamingo
  • AIFluence
  • Kantar Public
  • Pivot Collective
  • Konga
  • Facebook
  • RAHU

Scaleup Partners

  • Marie Stopes International of Nigeria
  • USAID-FPA – Pathfinder
  • USAID-RHITES Lango – JSI
  • USAID – Maternal, Child Health and Nutrition (MCHN) Activity – FHI360
  • GIWAC
  • PATH
  • AMREF – Heroes Project
  • A360
  • IntegratE

Cover

01 #PeoplePowered

02 Breaking Taboos

03 Moving Care Closer to Consumers

04 Innovating on Investments

ICFP Q&A:
Let's Talk About Sex

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