The Self-Care Trailblazer Group (SCTG) was established in 2019 by the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) and the Hewlett Foundation to promote self-care for Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR). It brings together a range of stakeholders including implementers, researchers, funders and youth advocates to bridge research gaps and support governments to embed self-care in national policy and practice.
The group’s FAST TRACK programme is supporting ‘trailblazer countries’ (Nigeria, Uganda, Senegal, Kenya and Ethiopia) to adopt policy guidelines to improve access to services and promote home-based care. This includes:
- Self-managed abortion and self-injectable contraception
- Telehealth services
- Improved over the counter access for products including emergency contraception and HIV self-testing
The goal is to support 16 million individuals to gain access to SRH at a cost of $0.90 per user and to promote community engagement through advocacy, communication and learning.
Our role
Our evaluation assesses how, and to what extent, FAST TRACK interventions have contributed to transforming policy and creating an enabling environment for self-care for SRH in the five trailblazer countries.
We hope that, through our final report and recommendations, this evaluation will inform the future strategy and programming of the STGC and of the FAST TRACK programme.
Methods and approaches
Our approach was developed to support ownership of the recommendations by the primary users. It considers what the implementers and overall portfolio has achieved, and how our learning can inform FAST TRACK’s strategy and planning moving forward.
We used in-depth country case studies, contribution analysis (CA) and outcome harvesting to interrogate the specific contribution that FAST TRACK’s investments have made to the desired outcomes, which are:
- Awareness and support for self-care increases among global and regional self-care influencers, policymakers and health care providers.
- Self care policies and financing are instituted at national and subnational levels in five countries.
- Demand and accountability for self-care increases among target communities and constituencies.
Our team have organised the evaluation into three modules:
- SRH Self-Care Investment Mapping: review of FAST TRACK’s investments in accelerating self-care policy change in the five countries.
- Trailblazer Country Contribution: an in-depth country review across the five countries to identify the progress towards reaching self-care policy outcomes, the contributions of the implementing partners, and other contextual influencing factors and actors.
- Analysis and Synthesis of the enablers and barriers of what FAST TRACK achieved across the countries. This is an overall assessment of the investment’s contribution, and recommendations for future investments.
To find our more about our evaluation, get in touch.
