Knowledge and information are only half of "know-how." The other half is skills-building. Much of K4Health's work involves capacity strengthening—providing tools, resources, and learning experiences that develop an organization or an individual's skills to find and use the knowledge they need.
K4Health's capacity-building work takes many forms, from storytelling workshops to organizational analyses to regional initiatives.
When country governments are strategic and efficient in investing their limited resources to meet the growing demand for family planning, they are more likely to achieve their family planning goals--goals that will help save millions of lives and improve the health and well-being of women, families, and communities around the world. A costed implementation plan (CIP) is a multi-year actionable roadmap designed to help governments plan and meet these important goals.
A mother embraces her child at the Marie Stopes Kavule Clinic in Kampala, Uganda. Photo credit: David Alexander, Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs/FP Voices 2016.
Family planning saves lives and helps ensure educational and economic opportunity for women, girls, families, and communities. The family planning and reproductive health community is often focused on data and metrics—using the numbers to elevate family planning as a high-impact development intervention with strong returns on investment. Data is essential for successful programming, but stories can help bring the data to life, share knowledge and experience, create community, and compel action.
K4Health and Family Planning 2020 (FP2020) created Family Planning Voices to document and share personal stories from people around the world who are passionate about family planning. This growing collection features portraits of storytellers alongside their own words, connecting voices and faces across the globe, from small rural villages to megacities.
Shek Kasim Kurke, a village elder and religious leader in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia, poses for a picture.
Population, Health, and Environment (PHE) is a development approach that focuses on the relationship between human health and environmental health. Integrated PHE programs improve primary health care services, particularly family planning and reproductive health, while also helping communities conserve biodiversity, manage natural resources, and develop sustainable livelihoods. Some countries--such as Ethiopia, Madagascar, and the Philippines--have done extensive work in PHE policy and programming, and have powerful stories to tell. Capturing and sharing these stories provides a strong advocacy tool for the PHE approach and complements research and evaluation data.