What Works in Family Planning Interventions in Sub-saharan Africa: A Scoping Review

Introduction: This scoping review was aimed to map the available evidence on family planning intervention in Sub Saharan Africa. Even though there were systematic reviews conducted in this setting on family planning interventions, the need for this scoping review stems from the need to provide an updates on family planning intervention across Sub Saharan Africa. It is essential to establish an adequate evidence base to support the design of policies aimed at improving family planning interventions. Furthermore, condensing evidence across different settings allows a meaningful comparison of experiences and facilitates knowledge transfer across countries. Therefore, this scoping review tried to summarize what works in family planning interventions in Sub Saharan Africa. Methods: The overall focus was to review the overall body of evidence on a given topic, with focus on width rather than depth. We conducted our scoping review according to the ‘York Methodology’ described by Arksey & O’Malley. This allowed us to appraise and condense evidence across study types into one single interpretation. Result: Five studies were reviewed in this study. All of the studies were specific to countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Among the five quantitative studies, the majority used cross-sectional study design while the remaining used quasiexperimental study design. From studies reviewed, demand creation through (mass media, community mobilizations), messages from religious leaders, advocacy, social franchising, establishment of family planning task force, mobile outreach, and static service delivery were mentioned as means of family planning interventions. Conclusion: Mass media coverage, demand generation, and advocacy and community mobilization were commonly used in family planning interventions across different Sub-Saharan African Countries. Accordingly, family planning interventions which used different these strategies were characterized by better use of modern contraception in these setups.