La Famille Ideale is a package of participatory tools for MSI community-based mobilisers, who help build community awareness and support for adolescent sexual and reproductive health and rights. The tools include a game and conversation-starting cards that aim to open up conversations and encourage support for adolescents in rural communities to be able to access contraception.
Participating in La Famille Ideale can encourage conversations between couples and family members about contraception, which otherwise may not be happening, and may be needed to support women’s access to services. The discussions generated can start to challenge social norms about who can use contraception, as well as when and how decisions about reproductive health should take place.
Brief: How LFI was piloted across the Sahel
La Famille Ideale has been integrated into community awareness activities across MSI’s Sahel programmes (Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Senegal).
Developed using human-centred design (HCD), initial piloting of the approach in Burkina Faso saw a 24% rise in adolescents reached by MSI mobile outreach teams, where the tools were used to mobilise communities in advance of an MSI visit (there was no change in adolescent reach where the tools were not used).
Qualitative insights from Senegal highlighted that the community discussion facilitated by La Famille Ideale helps to address and bust local myths and misunderstandings about family planning. The tools are an effective way to engage a range of audiences with the benefits of contraception and put this in the context of broader family aspirations and challenges (e.g. managing resources, sending children to school, maintaining a healthy relationship).
In Mali and Senegal, the tools have been endorsed by the government and integrated into national strategies and plans. Most recently, in Mali, the team have started exploring how to leverage the positive discussion created by the community game to include broader gender themes of couples communication and inter-partner violence (IPV).
Brief: An evaluation of La Famille Ideale in Niger
Strong social norms in Niger around marriage, childbearing and family planning can make it difficult for women and girls to access contraception.
In Niger, 150 community health workers organise monthly sessions using La Famille Ideale. This is the country where this strategy is most extensively being used. A recent assessment found that the approach in Niger is helping reduce stigma around contraception, engage influential family members such as husbands and mothers-in-law, and is associated with increased use of family planning services at supported health facilities.
This brief explains the impact of La Famille Ideale in Niger.
