A social accountability study conducted by DSW Kenya has revealed that family planning services in two health facilities in Mombasa County are satisfactory.
In an exercise conducted in March and April 2021, DSW Kenya trained and supported youth from Sub-County Youth Accountability Forums in Jomvu and Changamwe, commencing a social accountability exercise to generate evidence and learning for improved sexual and reproductive health/family planning service delivery.
The social accountability exercise targeted two health facilities selected through purposeful sampling. One facility (Mikindani Dispensary) was selected in Jomvu sub-county and one facility (Chaani Dispensary) was selected from Changamwe sub-county.
The community scorecard
The Youth Accountability Forums used the community scorecard, a tool applied in a participatory process to rate public services and the performance of a service provider (for example, health, education facilities) using scores defined by the community.
Community scorecards are good at identifying failures and gaps in service delivery and provide feedback to the service provider to improve the quality, efficiency, accessibility, relevance, and accountability in the delivery of public services.
The community scorecard process brings together the users and providers of a service to identify problems, jointly develop solutions to resolve the service delivery problems identified. They can be particularly useful in monitoring the quality of local service delivery at service delivery points and for measuring the impacts of a project.
Methodology
In each facility, five focus group discussions were conducted targeting different groups (male youth; female youth, people living with disabilities; men and women; and service providers). In addition, five key informant interviews were conducted in each sub-county targeting health facility in-charges, private sector providers, the county reproductive health coordinator, representatives from civil society organisations and a county official from the finance and economic planning department).
The tools applied in data collection included: a focus group discussion/community scorecard guide; key informant interview questionnaires; an input planning matrix; and an action planning template.
A five-point rubric scale was used to analyse community scorecard data – where 1 represented “very poor/very dissatisfied”, 2 represented “poor/dissatisfied”, 3 represented “fairly satisfied”, 4 represented “good/satisfied”, and 5 represented “very good/very satisfied”.
Findings and recommendations
The study examined the following aspects of family planning service delivery:
· Availability of family planning methods; Provision of family planning counselling.
· Availability of family planning information; Involvement of youth in family planning.
· Quality of Service Provision when providing family planning services.
· Sexual and reproductive health/Family planning operational environment.
Here is what the study found at Chaani dispensary while at Mikindani dispensary, here is what the study found.
Speaking at the launch of the report’s findings during the World Contraception Day 2021 commemoration event in Mombasa, DSW Kenya’s Advocacy Officer Hellen Kuria noted that over the last two decades, Kenya has made progress in improving access to modern contraceptives with the contraceptive prevalence rate among married women of reproductive age growing to 61 percent in 2020, up from 39 percent in 1998.
“As we join the rest of the world in marking World Contraception Day 2021, DSW Kenya is ready to support the department of health to advocate for allocation of the required funding for Mombasa County’s family planning programme in line with the county’s family planning costed implementation plan”, Hellen said.
DSW’s social accountability project in Mombasa, Kenya
Through funding from Ford Foundation, Deutsche Stiftung Weltbevölkerung (DSW) Kenya commenced the implementation of Uadilifu: community scorecard Initiative in July 2020.
‘Uadilifu: community scorecard Initiative’ is a two-year project aimed at improving governance and accountability in health by strengthening youth-led community actions for health governance and accountability in Mombasa County (Jomvu and Changamwe sub-counties).
The project aims at contributing to improved governance and accountability in health in Mombasa County by:
- Improving leadership and coordination of youth-led groups in governance and accountability engagements.
- Increasing capacity among young people in evidence generation for governance and accountability.
- Creating a conducive environment for meaningful participation of youth in governance and accountability processes created
