New global family planning handbook helps improve quality of services, says Jane Bertrand

The third edition of Family Planning: A Global Handbook for Providers is being released this week at the 2018 Regional Consortium Meeting of the Implementing Best Practices (IBP) Initiative.

The Global Handbook is a critical guide for practitioners since family planning is considered a development “best buy” and a life-saving intervention for millions of women and girls. Crucial to the success of family planning efforts worldwide is a well-educated and trained health workforce.

“At a time when family planning has regained strong visibility on the global health agenda, it is all the more important for providers of family planning services to have up-to-date information on the contraceptives they provide,” says Dr. Jane Bertrand, Neal A. and Mary Vanselow Endowed Chair of Global Health Management and Policy at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. “This well-researched, user-friendly volume contributes to improving the quality of services in countries worldwide.”

Dr. Bertrand leads implementation and evaluation of family planning programs to increase contraceptive use in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and was recently recognized by the Population Association of America.

Written in plain terms and organized for quick review, the Global Handbook has served as the world’s standard reference on family planning methods and related topics since its first publication in 2006. To date, more than 500,000 copies have been distributed in 13 languages. This will be the third edition published jointly by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the World Health Organization (WHO), with support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and its Knowledge for Health (K4Health) Project. The Global Handbook is endorsed by more than 125 organizations worldwide, many of them members of the IBP Initiative.

The 2018 edition of the Global Handbook is available in English and will soon be translated into French and Spanish. All printed copies will be distributed with a free copy of the “Do You Know Your Family Planning Choices?” wall chart, which summarizes each contraceptive method that providers can display for clients. A redesigned Global Handbook website, www.fphandbook.org,  has also been launched.