Publications and Resources

Family Planning: A Global Handbook for Providers | Guides and Handbooks | Job Aids | Technical Briefs and Reports | Websites | Listservs & eNewsletters | Fact Sheets About the K4Health Project | Fact Sheets About K4Health Toolkits |

Two staff members of WUSC (World University Service of Canada) train a community member to keep accurate books and report back to the community on expenditures related to their water system in rural Pujun, near San Marcos, Peru. © 2005 April Pojman, Courtesy of PhotoshareThe resources below are select publications produced by K4Health and its predecessor, the INFO Project. Many of these resources have been produced in collaboration with other organizations such as the International Planned Parenthood Federation, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the World Health Organization.

Also included is a list of websites managed by K4Health, a collection of email lists and and e-newsletters about reproductive health-related issues, and fact sheets about K4Health and several of our Toolkits.

Family Planning: A Global Handbook for Providers
 

One of K4Health's flagship products, this practical handbook offers clinic-based health care professionals in developing countries the latest guidance on providing contraceptive methods. Originally published by K4Health's predecessor the INFO Project, the book was prepared through a unique collaboration between editorial staff at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and technical experts from the World Health Organization, the United States Agency for International Development, and other organizations around the world. The books is one of the World Health Organization's Family Planning Cornerstones.

The 2011 edition contains approximately 13 pages of material that has been updated from the 2007 edition, in accordance with WHO's 2008 and 2011 revisions to its Medical Eligibility Criteria and Selected Practice Recommendations.

  • E-Reader/Mobile Editions: For those of you who use an e-reader, tablet computer, or other mobile device, we are pleased to offer the Global Handbook in a mobile format. Kindle users will need the proprietary Kindle version (currently $1.99 at Amazon's Kindle Store; we are working to provide a free version from this page). The EPUB format works on several mobile devices (view a complete list of compatible devices), and is available as a free download on Lulu.com (links below; italicised items will be made available as soon as possible.)
  • Print Edition: A limited number of print copies are available for counselors or trainers in developing countries who need them. Please e-mail requests to orders@k4health.org, explaining the intended use.
  • Online Edition: A web-based version of the 2011 edition of the Global Handbook, as well as the 2011 supplement and links to PDFs of the 2007 edition in several languages, are available at http://www.globalhandbook.org.
Guides and Handbooks:

 

Guide to Monitoring and Evaluating Health Information Products and Services (2007): provides publishers, knowledge managers, program managers, M&E specialists, and health information communicators with a standardized way to evaluate whether their print or electronic products and services meet the requirements needed to make them effective, used, and adapted by health care practitioners and policy makers in the field.
 
A Gender Guide to Reproductive Health Publications: Producing Gender-Sensitive Publications for Health Professionals (2007): designed for the editors, writers, designers, and distribution specialists who help develop and disseminate reproductive health publications for professional audiences. The goal of the guide is to help such staff incorporate gender perspectives into every stage of the publication process and thus ensure that women and men in the audience receive and understand the information they need.
 
K4Health Guide for Building Collaborative Toolkits: A guide for technical working groups to help them with conceptualizing and developing K4Health eToolkits, including guidance about the roles and responsibilities of technical working group members and how to structure toolkits and identify resources to include in them. It also includes guidance about promoting, updating, and monitoring and evaluating the use and usefulness of toolkits.
 
Managing Knowledge to Improve Reproductive Health Programs (2004): This 36-page resource covers how managers of reproductive health programs can use knowledge management tools to systematically increase the creativity and empowerment of an organization’s staff members and the efficiency and effectiveness of its operations.
 
SPARHCS: The Strategic Pathway to Reproductive Health Commodity Security: These two companion guides from 2008 help countries develop and implement strategies to secure essential supplies for family planning and reproductive health programs. (Available in English, French, and Spanish.)
Job Aids:
 
Contraceptive Myths and Realities Database: This database provides answers to over 60 myths about contraceptive methods. For each myth, the database lists facts and counselling messages (e.g., examples of what counsellors from various countries say to clients). Can't find a myth, or the answer to a myth? Have a counselling message to contribute? Send them to medtech@ippf.org or Kiran Asif for possible inclusion in the database. The content for the database was prepared by K4Health’s predecessor INFO Project with technical review by IPPF.
 
Decision Making Tool: The Decision-Making Tool for Family Planning Clients and Providerspromotes high-quality family planning counselling. It supports the client and provider as the provider helps the client decide on a contraceptive method and learn how to use it. This tool is one cornerstone in the World Health Organization’s series, Four Cornerstones of Family Planning Guidance. (The other WHO cornerstones are the Medical Eligibility Criteria for Contraceptive Use, the Selected Practice Recommendations for Contraceptive Use, and Family Planning: A Global Handbook for Providers.)
 
Do You Know Your Family Planning Choices?: This wall chart replaces the old wall chart by the same name and will continue to serve as a tool to comply with a requirement of the Tiahrt Amendment.  The new wall chart contains method specific information from Family Planning: A Global Handbook for Providers that providers can display for their clients.
 
Medical Eligibility Criteria Wheel for Contraceptive Use: This wheel contains the medical eligibility criteria for starting use of contraceptive methods. It is based on the Medical Eligibility Criteria for Contraceptive Use, 3rd edition and its 2008 Update. This update of the MEC Wheel contains 25 new recommendations that tell family planning providers whether a woman presenting with a known medical or physical condition is able to use various contraceptive methods safely and effectively. Notable changes include no restrictions on the use of any method for women diagnosed with mild cirrhosis, chronic hepatitis or who are carriers of viral hepatitis. In addition, the updated wheel includes new guidance on drug interactions.
Technical Briefs and Reports:
 
Contraceptive Security: Ready Lessons I and Ready Lessons II: These two series of booklets from 2004 and 2008 provide USAID Missions and their partners strategies and activities that can significantly improve contraceptive security.  (Available in French and Spanish.)
 
Global Health Technical Briefs: Originally published by the INFO Project, these 53, two-page Global Health Technical Briefs from 2004-2009 summarize the most important information on timely reproductive health topics and pinpoint the implications for public health programs. (Available in English, French, and Spanish.)
 
INFO Reports: Published by the INFO Project, INFO Reports (2004-2008) feature brief looks at special topics, newsworthy events, and important new research and program developments in family planning and related reproductive health.  The 19 Reports range in length from 8-25 pages. (Available in English, French, and Spanish.)
 
K4Health Needs Assessments: K4Health Needs Assessments (2009-2011) focus on family planning and reproductive health and other health information needs. They include literature reviews, summaries of global online surveys, qualitative country needs assessments from Malawi, India, Southern Africa, and Botswana.  The assessments are based on a continuous feedback principle that ensures audience demand for health information is routinely gauged and met.
 
Population Reports: Previously published three times annually by K4Health’s predecessor Information & Knowledge for Optimal Health (INFO) Project of The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for Communication Programs (CCP). The reports which were published from 1973-2008, provide accurate and authoritative overviews of important developments in family planning and related health topics. Download or browse 47 recent issues—some with links to Power Point presentations, Q & A’s, Quizzes, as well as Technical Briefs and INFO Reports. (Available in English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish.)
 
K4Health eToolkits:Three Process Models to Meet the Needs and Interests of Our Partners: A technical brief providing a summary of three process models to develop K4Health eToolkits based on the level of collaboration involved, ranging from low to high collaboration. The brief includes case studies demonstrating how our partners have put these models into practice.
 

Websites:

 
Advance Family Planning: AFP aims to revitalize family planning programs through increased and more effective funding and improved policy commitments locally, nationally, and globally. 
 
CHW Central: CHW Central is an online resource for information and dialogue about Community Health Workers (CHW). CHWs play an important role in increasing access to health services in poor and underserved communities around the world. CHW Central supports community health workers and strengthens CHW programs around the world by connecting experts, practitioners, and supporters in interactive discussion forums and sharing the latest developments in CHW research, practice, and policy.
 
Health Care Improvement Portal: This site offers extensive resources on quality improvement methods and approaches for improving health service delivery systems. Program implementers are invited to share their health care improvement experiences with others worldwide through the portal's Improvement Database, which seeks to facilitate the sharing of tools and information to support improvement activities in maternal and child health, HIV/AIDS, TB, malaria, services for orphans and vulnerable children, human resources for health, and patient safety. Registered users can access all portal features, including submitting reports on their improvement work, suggesting resources for the site, and posting comments to improvement reports in the database.
 
HIPNET: A partnership that addresses a key public health need for access to technical health information and innovative information technologies that strengthen the performance and sustainability of health care programs, organizations, and services worldwide. HIPNET facilitates collaboration among organizations that produce and disseminate print and electronic information in the field of international health.
 
HIV/AIDS and Sexual and Reproductive Health Integration: This resource is designed to help integrate provisions of sexual and reproductive health services with activities for preventing and treating HIV/AIDS. Included are selected documents and other materials which reflect the experiences and the latest thinking of the health community on integration of HIV and sexual and reproductive health services.
 
IBP Initiative, Implementing Best Practices: Interactive forum through which policy makers, program managers, implementing organizations, and providers convene to identify and apply evidence-based practices that can improve reproductive health outcomes in their countries.
 
Interagency Youth Working Group (IYWG): The IYWG provides global technical leadership to advance the reproductive health and HIV/AIDS outcomes of young people ages 10-24 in international public health settings. Click on the link to view more information about the IYWG, partner organizations, meetings, and publications.
 
MLE Project: The Measurement, Learning & Evaluation (MLE) Project is the evaluation component of the Urban Reproductive Health Initiative (Urban RH Initiative), a multi-country program in India, Kenya, Nigeria and Senegal that aims to improve the health of the urban poor. The goal of the MLE project is to promote evidence-based decision-making in the design of integrated family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH) interventions for the Urban RH Initiative.
 
Post Abortion Care: This site provides comprehensive, standardized, and evidence-based information on post abortion care. It serves as a repository of basic resources for policymakers and program planners who are designing or revising their current post abortion care program.
 
USAID Global Health Mini-University: The Mini-U, sponsored by USAID every year, is a day-long forum offering many sessions highlighting evidence-based best practices and state-of-the-art information from a variety of technical areas across the global health field, including HIV/AIDS, family planning and reproductive health, maternal and child health, infectious diseases, and health systems.
 
Reproductive Health-Related Listservs and e-Newsletters:
 
K4Health has compiled links of listservs, e-newsletters, free journals, and other information sources all related to reproductive health that can help you connect and share information with your colleagues. To add your organization's knowledge sharing resources to these pages please contact us.
 
 
Fact Sheets About the K4Health Project
 

K4Health Project Portfolio: The K4Health Project Portfolio provides a 40-page overview of the 5-year project, presented in a series of fact sheets. Topics include: Overview, Needs Assessments, eToolkits, Custom Search and Databases, POPLINE, Photoshare, Virtual Learning and Knowledge Exchange, Country Model (for knowledge management and exchange), Focus on mHealth, Highlights from the K4Health Global Online Survey, Environment Scan: Findings and Implications, Results of the K4Health South Africa Online Survey, Key Findings from Swaziland and Botswana HIV Prevention Information Needs Assessments, Key Findings from the Malawi Health Information Needs Assessment.

K4Health Project Overview: The K4Health Overview describes the project’s knowledge management approach, audience, partners, mission, evaluation, and regional and country-level activities.

Needs Assessments: The K4Heath Needs Assessment fact sheet outlines the global, regional, and country-level activities, both ongoing and completed, and covers such questions as: What are the health information needs of key audiences? What infrastructure exists to support information and communication technologies (ICTs)? What are the most promising technologies and tools? What health information networks exist? Who are the key health information stakeholders? What are the challenges to accessing and using up-to-date health information?

eToolkits: The K4Health eToolkits fact sheet describes the method for collecting, updating, and disseminating online information for health policy makers, program managers, and service providers. The toolkits give quick and easy access to an electronic library of relevant and reliable resources on a specific health topic such as family planning methods, programs and services, and HIV/AIDS.

Custom Search and Databases: The Custom Search and Databases fact sheet explains how web users can use the customized Google search appliance to find relevant information quickly from different parts of the K4Health Web site without having to re-enter search terms. The K4Health databases currently house some 425,000 documents and photos.

POPLINE: The POPLINE fact sheet outlines the focus and operations of the POPLINE database which provides access to more than 350,000 records. The database covers reproductive health and related topics and includes links to some 40,000 full text documents, customized searches, and abstracts in English, French, and Spanish.

Photoshare: The Photoshare fact sheet describes the Photoshare database which houses over 20,000 images covering reproductive health and other development topics. It describes how to request images, annual Photoshare events, how to contribute photos, and more.

Virtual Learning and Knowledge: The Virtual Learning and Knowledge Exchange fact sheet describes the operations and activities of this K4Halth division which helps to develop eLearning courses and eForums for reproductive health and related topics. The eForums are conducted through the IBP Knowledge Gateway which has over 14,000 registered users from 200 countries.

Country Model: The Country Model fact sheet outlines the key components for Knowledge Management and Exchange Interventions—Rapid Assessments, National KM&E Task Force, Technical Working Groups, District Learning Centers, and mHealth Networks. The Fact Sheet includes a summary of the Malawi in-country pilot project.

Global Health eLearning Center (English): The Global Health eLearning Center fact sheet describes the USAID-based effort to develop some 40 eLearning courses that have been used by more than 53,000 registered users.
Global Health eLearning Center (French)
Global Health eLearning Center (Spanish)

 

PEPFAR eLearning Initiative Fact Sheet: The PEPFAR eLearning Initiative fact sheet summarizes the benefits of eLearning as a proven approach and describes how it can help enhance training, pre-training, and follow-up training for front-line health workers. So far, there are seven PEPFAR eLearning courses from USAID's Global Health Initiative which can be completed in one to two hours. As of March 2011, some 13,879 learners from 157 countries have taken the courses.

Fact Sheets About K4Health Toolkits

Community-Based Family Planning Toolkit
Condom Use Toolkit
Elements of Family Planning Success Toolkit
Family Planning and HIV Services Integration Toolkit
Haiti Relief Toolkit
IGWG Gender and Health Toolkit
Implants Toolkit
Injectables Toolkit
IUD Toolkit
Lactational Amenorrhea Method Toolkit
mHealth Toolkit  
Oral Contraceptives Toolkit
Postpartum Family Planning Toolkit
Standard Days Method Toolkit

 

 
 

 

 

 

Date last updated: 27 January 2012 - 4:03pm