Mobile internet—via phones, tablets, and other devices—is more accessible than ever before, and in recent years, it has become apparent that digital technology can improve health outcomes. USAID and our partners utilize digital technologies to increase global access to family planning and reproductive health information and services. These technologies allow us to reach women, girls, and people across gender identities with accurate information, helping them make informed decisions about their sexual and reproductive health, relationships, and families. Growing evidence identifies digital technology as a “promising practice” to support, maintain, and adopt healthy sexual and reproductive behaviors.
Shortly after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, digital platforms were vital to reaching individuals and couples with family planning information: women and young people had sustained access to family planning counseling; countries could share client-centered messages about COVID, family planning, and reproductive health; and family planning service providers received training and technical assistance virtually.
Leveraging Digital Technology to Reach Youth
Today, young people are more digitally savvy than ever. Digital technologies enable USAID and our partners to put information at young people’s fingertips, empowering them to make healthy and informed decisions.
The USAID-supported mobile app Go Nisha Go by Game of Choice, Not Chance allows Hindi-speaking girls in India to choose an avatar and navigate life in a digital world, encountering realistic challenges related to careers, relationships, and sexual and reproductive health, that help them learn and become more confident in the decisions they make. The app increases girls’ reproductive health knowledge and decision-making skills, encouraging them to make informed choices, develop strong voices, navigate barriers to contraception, overcome biases from health care providers, and become better equipped to realize their full potential.
Chatbots are also useful tools for reaching youth with reliable information and can help shape gender norms and improve gender equity. In West Africa, two chatbots—Tata Annie, developed by MOMENTUM Private Healthcare Delivery and DSSR-Bot, developed by Breakthrough ACTION and the Ouagadougou Partnership’s Think Tank Jeunes—connect young people to sexual and reproductive health information and services. In Benin, Tata Annie users can respond to a series of dynamic questions or chat with a certified midwife counselor to get answers to questions and get referrals to youth-friendly clinics. In other parts of West Africa, the DSSR-Bot operates on commonly used messaging platforms, like WhatsApp, Signal, and others, allowing youth to easily access information about gender issues, family planning, menstrual cycles, and other topics. These bots can also help increase gender equity by addressing harmful social norms, promoting healthy attitudes among men and boys, and engaging men in family planning programs as supportive partners, advocates, and users of contraception. Evidence shows that digital technology, including mobile apps, can improve men's and boys’ knowledge about harmful gender norms, change attitudes, and promote a willingness to address these norms. When men and boys are committed to creating a more equal world, women and girls can have greater agency to make decisions about their lives, including their health and relationships, and the health of their families.
Digital Technology as a Family Planning Method
Advances in digital technology have made it possible for people to use technology itself as a method of family planning. iCycleBeads is a smartphone app that offers a fertility awareness method of family planning, based on the Standard Days Method® (SDM), where depending on the day of their menstrual cycle, users can estimate which days they are fertile. The CycleBeads app uses a CycleBeads visual, as well as a calendar, to help users track their cycles and know which day pregnancy is likely. The app allows users to access a contraceptive method that does not require a visit to a health clinic, and empowers individuals and couples to plan or prevent pregnancy and work toward the future health and stability of their families. The CycleBeads tool that is the basis of the app was funded and developed by USAID. The USAID-funded Passages Project supported a dynamic social media campaign to raise awareness of the CycleBeads app in Rwanda and Uganda. The campaign reached over 3.5 million social media users and resulted in over 5,500 downloads of the app.
Digital Tools to Increase Service Provider Quality of Care
Family planning service providers are critical to the quality of sexual and reproductive health care that people receive. With appropriate training, service providers are better equipped to provide care and help women and other clients make informed decisions about their reproductive health. As a partner to the High Impact Practices community of experts, USAID contributed to a brief on “Digital Health to Support Family Planning Providers” that outlines how digital job aids, communication tools, training, and data prepare service providers to offer better sexual and reproductive health care. This resource adds to the evidence base of how family planning service providers can use digital technology to improve knowledge, capacity, and service quality.
USAID shares a commitment to increasing the agency of women and girls, in all their diversity, to make informed decisions regarding their health and better plan their futures. Advancements in digital technology have opened up entirely new ways of reaching people. USAID and our partners continue to adapt and employ these emerging technologies and tools to improve access to family planning and reproductive health information and services for people across the globe.
About the Author
Zoe Henderson is a Strategic Communications and Outreach Intern in USAID’s Office of Population and Reproductive Health.