Tools and Techniques

You Need to Improve Coordination When ...

• Your IEC campaign brings in many new acceptors, but you run out of contraceptive supplies and have to ask people to return later or go elsewhere, or conversely, when you have more supplies than are needed, which increases your costs substantially.
• Some of the messages of your IEC campaign conflict with your program's overall policy.
• In choosing among several IEC strategies, you don't have any idea of the costs and benefits of each strategy because you haven't consulted the finance department.
• Your service delivery personnel are not familiar with new IEC strategies and are not prepared for the increase in new acceptors nor for the questions they ask, or when clients come asking for services which your clinic doesn't provide.
• Your service providers cannot effectively refer clients for services your organization doesn't provide.
• An IEC campaign promotes a new service or product before the clinic is able to provide it.
• Those in charge of ordering contraceptive supplies are uncertain what quantities to order or how far ahead to order them.
• The policy makers, decision makers, and service providers don't have the information and data they need to make informed decisions.
• No one knows exactly how much it costs to provide services.
• Service providers find that certain program policies restrict their clients' access to contraceptives but don't know how to change the situation.
• The people who decide how much to charge for services and for contraceptives don't know the level of income of the people being served.
• Program planners receive service delivery statistics, demographic data, and health statistics too late to be of any use to their planning process.
• In some geographical areas, there are not enough family planning services to meet the demand, while other areas have facilities that are under-utilized.