Advancing Family Planning and Self-Care
inSupply addresses this gap by strengthening the systems that deliver contraception across both public and private sectors.
For instance, when going to the public hospitals, maybe you want to take the injection before going to work, you won’t be able since they come late to work, in the contrary the pharmacies are open so early and they are quick at service delivery. At the pharmacy, they will still remind you when your date is due, that you should come for the injection. That’s why since I came to this pharmacy I’ve never changed…
Our Core Strategy
- Integrating pharmacies and drug shops into national family planning ecosystems.
- Improving supply chain performance and efficiency.
- Enabling effective Public–Private Partnerships (PPPs).
This approach expands the number of trusted, accessible points where women can obtain quality services and products. Our programming combines workforce development, stronger supply chain linkages, demand generation, and scalable self-care innovations, such as self-injection, to expand method choice and ensure access.
Why Family Planning and Self-Care Matter
Despite progress, millions of women still face critical barriers to modern contraception, including stock-outs, limited provider capacity, high costs, stigma, and distance to health facilities. Globally, around 270 million women who want to avoid or delay pregnancy are not using modern contraception, and 218 million of them live in low- and middle-income countries, with the highest burden in sub-Saharan Africa. In Kenya, modern contraceptive use has increased significantly, yet about 14% of women have an unmet need for family planning, highlighting persistent gaps in access and service delivery.
Community pharmacies are often the most accessible and trusted health access points in both urban and peri-urban areas, making them essential for scale, equity, and sustainability. Our dual-sector approach strengthens private market ecosystems while reinforcing public health infrastructure to expand access equitably and sustainably. Self-care innovations, such as self-injection, are transformative, increasing autonomy, improving continuation rates, and reducing pressure on overstretched public facilities.
This is achieved through:
- The Market Test project, which provided insights that informed the Optimizing the Pharmacy Channel (OPC) project, focuses on expanding access through community pharmacies and private clinics in Kenya.
- The Delivering Innovations in Self-Care (DISC) project supports expanding access to FP services, specifically self-injection, in Kenya’s public sector.
- Workforce development and FP forecasting
Our Integrated Approach
Strengthening Private Sector Access Channels: Community Pharmacies and Private Clinics
We build the operational and digital capacity of pharmacies to serve as quality, accredited access points for modern contraception.
Our work includes:
- Training on contraceptive counseling, choice, and provision.
- Formal linkage of pharmacies with supply chains and health systems.
Result: Expanding safe, discreet, and convenient access points that women already trust and use for care.
Public Sector Engagement
We collaborate with Ministries of Health, Professional Associations, Primary Health Centers (PHCs), and Community Health Promoters (CHPs) to ensure coordinated, scalable family planning systems.
Our work includes:
- Integrating pharmacies into formal referral networks.
- Quality assurance support and mentorship.
- Policy alignment and technical advisory.
- Community demand generation campaigns.
- Strengthening service delivery standards.
Advancing Self-Injection and Self-Care
Self-injection is a powerful enabler of reproductive health autonomy.
We support:
- Provider training on DMPA-SC and self-injection counseling.
- Community awareness campaigns to address myths and misconceptions.
- Structured client follow-up systems.
- Bi-directional referrals between pharmacies and public health facilities.
Result: Embedding self-care reduces barriers, increases continuation rates, and empowers women to manage their reproductive health with confidence.
Our Footprint
Our family planning work spans multiple regions, integrating:
- Private pharmacies in urban, peri-urban, and rural settings.
- Public sector facilities and community health networks.
- Digital pharmacy platforms.
- National and sub-national stakeholders.
Across our footprint, we combine technical expertise with on-the-ground implementation capacity to drive measurable impact.
What Sets Us Apart
- Dual-Sector Engagement: Deep collaboration across private and public sectors.
- Self-Care Expertise:> Deep expertise in self-care and self-injection scale-up.
- Data & Digital: AI-powered forecasting and analytics; Digital pharmacy integration with national health systems (KHIS).
- Partnership Architecture: Structured Public-Private Partnership (PPP) design and implementation.
- Evidence-Driven Programming: Programming is continuously informed by evidence and system data
Our Impact at a Glance
Women Reached
Directly through community pharmacies and private clinics with modern FP services
Women Practicing Self-Injection
Women Initiated on Self-Injection
Workers Trained
Pharmacies Trained
Pharmacies Accredited
Policy Contribution
Data Reporting
Data-Driven Decision Making
- System Integration: Through the OPC project, we supported the development of the Pharmacy reporting tool and its integration with government data systems. Over 60% of trained pharmacies are currently reporting through the pharmacy portal.
- Performance Monitoring: We use the Indicator Tracking Tool (ITT) as an IMMPACTT to improve data use at the sub-county, county, and project level.
Public–Private Partnership Architecture
Sustainable access to family planning requires aligned systems. We design and operationalize structured Public-Private Partnership (PPP) models that:
- Formally link pharmacies with PHCs for bi-directional referrals.
- Align training and quality standards across sectors.
- Coordinate demand-generation and community-engagement efforts.
- Strengthen financing and supply chain alignment.
These partnerships entail mentorship, quality assurance, strengthening referral pathways to avoid leakages, and facilitating capacity building. They move beyond short-term interventions toward institutionalized collaboration to co-create a collaborative framework with community pharmacies, enhancing the sustainability of project initiatives.
Demand Generation and Community Engagement
Access requires awareness. Our mission is to bridge the gap between healthcare providers and the communities they serve by creating a dynamic, multi-channel ecosystem that empowers individuals to take charge of their health. We implement multi-channel demand generation strategies informed by a joint roadmap that:
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- Addresses myths and misconceptions.
- Promotes informed choice and self-care adoption.
Our Strategic Pillars include
- Digital Innovation: The Chatbot Experience
- Partnered with Viya Health to launch an accurate, confidential, and youth-friendly digital chatbot. It uses AI to provide instant support, overcoming barriers such as stigma and geographic distance.
- Youth Engagement & Peer Leadership
- We design youth-led strategies, working with sensitized youth champions across Kakamega, Nakuru, and Nairobi. From social media advocacy to peer-to-peer networks, we empower young people to become health influencers, ensuring demand generation is authentic and relatable.
- Capacity Building: CHPs and Healthcare Providers
- We enhance the skills of Community Health Promoters (CHPs)—the frontline of our mission —and train pharmacy providers to leverage digital tools for demand creation and client loyalty.
- The Power of Print: Reaching Every Corner
- Our targeted print campaigns, including co-created Information, Education, and Communication (IEC) materials, provide tangible, trusted, and easy-to-digest health resources that serve as permanent reminders of available services.
- Community Dialogues: Change Through Conversation
- We facilitate safe spaces for open discussion to de-stigmatize health services, identify local barriers, and build trust with community leaders.
Capacity Development Model
Pharmacy Capacity
- Clinical and Counseling Excellence: Equipped over 500 pharmacy providers with competency-based, MOH-approved training to strengthen clinical and counseling excellence in FP service delivery, grounded in empathy-driven client engagement.
- Quality Improvement Systems: Institutionalize quality improvement systems that reinforce standards adherence and continuous performance monitoring through support, supervision, and technical assistance from the MOH (national & county), professional associations (KPA & PSK), and PPB. Over 300 pharmacy providers have been accredited to offer short-term FP services after meeting MOH requirements.
Public Sector Capacity
- Cascade Model: Our training adopts a cascade model: national master trainers train county trainers, who then train facility nurses, who cascade content to their peers. This approach maximizes reach and minimizes disruption to routine services.
- Empathy-Based Counseling: A cascaded Empathy-Based Counseling model was implemented in Nairobi, Nakuru, and Kakamega, strengthening client-centered counseling and DMPA-SC self-injection delivery.
- 15 Master Trainers trained 40 county trainers, who then trained 476 nurses from 400 public facilities.
Policy and Regulatory Advisory
We support policy and regulatory strengthening by providing technical guidance, developed collaboratively with the MOH and stakeholders, to ensure that private-sector engagement aligns with national family-planning priorities.
- We actively participate in the development and review of MOH guidelines, policies, and strategies (e.g., the National Family Planning Guideline for Healthcare Providers,, 7th edition, 2025).
- We facilitate the development and dissemination of policy briefs specific to pharmacy and other providers to ensure they are well-informed, compliant, and equipped to deliver high-quality, client-centered FP services.
Our model ensures that capacity is not temporary but embedded, leaving systems stronger, more accountable, and more resilient long after project cycles end.
Looking Ahead
The future of family planning lies in system transformation, not isolated service delivery. Our forward priorities include:
- National-scale self-injection expansion.
- Advanced AI-driven predictive supply systems.
- Integrated digital pharmacy ecosystems.
- Telehealth-enabled FP counseling.
- Youth-centered programming.
- Sustainable financing models for long-term access.
We are working toward resilient, data-informed, self-care-enabled family planning systems that expand choice and autonomy for women everywhere.
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