What's New With the HIPs

The HIP Partnership recently expanded to include over 65 global organizations. As part of a new HIP Newsletter series, we will feature Q&A's with new and longstanding HIP Partners.

Q: Please share a brief overview of the work YLabs focuses on.
A: YLabs is a leading global design and research organization. With teams in Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, India, Nigeria, and the USA, YLabs works in 16 countries to improve young people’s health and economic opportunity. Our team brings extensive expertise on the engagement of youth in the design, evaluation and implementation of interventions meant for them. With youth, our team co-designs and develops innovative service models, digital technologies, and communications that meet young people’s needs. YLabs is the only design and research organization that works on HIV, mental health, and sexual and reproductive health exclusively for youth. Our team of designers, researchers, writers, and behavioral scientists have expertise working on complex service design, demand generation, and digital health projects at scale.

Q: How did you first hear about the HIPs?
A: In 2017, YLabs’ Technical Director, Nicole Ippoliti, co-authored HIP Enhancement, Digital Health for Systems: Strengthening Family Planning Systems Through Time and Resource Efficiencies (2017) and in 2020 co-authored an additional Enhancement, Digital Health to Support Family Planning Providers: Improving knowledge, capacity, and service quality (2020). Since 2020, YLabs staff have served as technical experts to the HIP working group, providing input on briefs regarding digital health and adolescents.

Q: What excites you about being part of the HIP Partnership? 
A: Throughout our global youth programming, we often see how difficult it is for key decision-makers to determine the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of FP interventions while navigating limited resources and local capacity to implement these interventions to quality. For this reason and more, we are honored to partner with HIPs to ensure that emerging evidence and best practices of FP interventions are reaching key decision-makers at national and local levels with accessible, actionable, and clear guidance on how to prioritize resources to support FP outcomes in their communities.

Q: Which HIP product does YLabs consult most often? 
A: The briefs which focus on social and behavior change, particularly the Digital Health for Social and Behavior Change: New technologies, new ways to reach people have been an invaluable resource when underlining the importance of engaging adolescents and youth throughout the design process to determine whether technology can support positive behavior change on FP outcomes of interest. The brief helps to underscore critical design principles our team often weighs when co-designing digital behavior change solutions including: understanding young peoples’ preferences regarding medium, privacy, content format, digital access, and literacy. We are looking forward to contributing to this global body of evidence when the results of our forthcoming RCT in Rwanda assess the impact and cost-effectiveness of a comprehensive digital platform, CyberRwanda, which was designed, launched and evaluated in partnership with over 1,000 youth and key stakeholders in Rwanda.

If your organization would like to be featured in future HIP newsletters, place reach out to us!

The HIP Technical Advisory Group (TAG) welcomed three new members this year. The TAG is made up of experts in family planning research, program implementation, policymakers, and representatives from donor agencies. Please give a warm welcome to:
 
Dr. Saad Abdulmumin is the Senior Program Officer, Impact at Scale in the Family Planning team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation providing leadership to sustainably drive impact of family planning interventions at scale. He has most recently served as the Senior Advisor and Deputy Incident Commander for the COVID-19 response at the Bureau for Global Health, USAID. Dr. Saad notes, "I became aware of the HIPs through my work in FP/RH, I found the HIPs extremely valuable in addition to the WHO documents and other resources when designing programs and reviewing proposals. I am deeply humbled and honored with the opportunity to serve in the TAG and contribute to the HIP development process."
 
Dr. Sonja Caffe is the Advisor for Adolescent Health at the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO). A native of Suriname, Dr. Caffee has worked in the areas of SRH, ​​HIV/STI, child and adolescent health. Dr. Caffe said, “I became aware of the HIP through my technical cooperation to countries, when I was working as a sub-regional technical advisor in HIV/STI prevention in the PAHO Caribbean HIV/STI Office based in Trinidad. As a technical advisor working with multiple countries, I always had good use for documents and tools that were not too lengthy, reliable and user-friendly, to share with my counterparts, in addition to the documents and guidance published by PAHO and WHO.The HPS fit that profile, so in addition to using them myself, I also shared with country counterparts as needed.”

Medha Sharma is the Founder and President of a young-women led organization, Visible Impact in Nepal. She has a decade long experience of working for youth SRHR focused on advocacy, program implementation, and research. Ms. Sharma says, “As an implementer, I find HIP briefs and other documents extremely helpful because they are evidence-based and can be applied to almost all settings...Whenever I am designing interventions, I make sure that I refer to HIP briefs to ensure that the proposed intervention has greater chances of being effective.”

The TAG’s next meeting will be virtually on Zoom November 30-December 2 co-hosted by BMGF and FP2030. Read more about other TAG members, their meetings and their roles and responsibilities. 

The HIP partnership extends a warm welcome to our new co-sponsor, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). BMGF joins existing co-sponsors FP2030, IPPF, UNFPA, USAID and WHO. These six organizations serve as a secretariat for the HIP work. Two representatives from each organization participate in monthly calls in order to set strategic direction for the HIPs partnership, ensure coordination among various groups working on HIP activities, and discuss and approve new types of HIP products, among other activities. Nomi Fuchs-Montgomery, Deputy Director of Family Planning and Dr. Saad Abdulmumin, Senior Program Officer, joined the HIP co-sponsors in August. Read more about the role of the co-sponsors and BMGF’s commitment to family planning.

As more and more countries across the globe are implementing and scaling up High Impact Practices (HIPs) and WHO Guidelines in family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH), projects and programs are gaining valuable insights and lessons learned into what works for their local context. In an effort to share these experiences widely amongst the FP/RH community, the IBP Network hosted a contest calling for field-based program implementation stories. Regionally-based recordings featuring the winners are now available on the HIP website:

Most stories focused on service delivery interventions, including Mobile Outreach, Community Health Workers, Immediate Postpartum Family Planning, and Family Planning and Immunization Integration. Several also highlighted Community Group Engagement, Domestic Public Financing, and Adolescent-Responsive Contraceptive Services.

The implementation stories are available in English, Spanish, and French translations. Visit the IBP Network and HIPs Resource page for more information.

Are you interested in providing feedback on HIP briefs? Are you aware of new peer-reviewed or programmatic evidence that could strengthen new and existing HIPs? Members of the global family planning and reproductive health community are now invited to submit technical feedback on an ongoing basis. We are currently seeking community feedback on the following HIP Briefs: