Ensuring Quality: Recommendations for Implementing the Global Consensus Statement

The document emphasizes the need to rapidly expand contraceptive programs to reach underserved populations, particularly adolescents and young people, with high-quality services that include the full range of contraceptive methods. Key questions related to quality of care arose during the 2016 Consensus to Action meeting, including whether innovation and quality always go hand-in-hand, how to create high-quality health systems for everyone, and where the youth voice is in quality of care. The document highlights the need to ensure that quality of care planning, metrics, and evaluation are built into innovative models and tested rigorously. The document emphasizes the importance of involving young people in defining quality and respectful care, as well as in the interpretation of data collected about quality and respectful care. It recommends collecting qualitative data on user-experiences, particularly surrounding clients' expectations of services versus perceptions of services, and exploring the use of mobile technology for client exit surveys. Advocacy for ensuring and improving quality is also a key aspect of the document, which recommends advocating for updates to the Family Planning Global Handbook to include quality indicators for expanding access to Long-Acting Reversible Contraceptives (LARCs) for youth, as well as advocating for the development and implementation of supportive policies within countries and institutions to ensure access to the full range of contraceptive methods. Program and service design for ensuring and improving quality is also a critical component of the document, which recommends providing follow-up services to ensure clients are satisfied with their method, ensuring that quality standards for services are communicated during counseling and other demand generation efforts, and using reward-systems to encourage health providers to provide high-quality, respectful care. For donors interested in quality assurance and improvement, the document recommends investing in research and programs focused on improving health providers' perceptions and norms related to young people using LARCs, investing in supervision and mentorship programs and systems for health providers, and investing in accountability mechanisms for ensuring and sustaining quality. The document highlights the need for a comprehensive approach to ensuring quality of care, including evidence generation, advocacy, and program and service design. It emphasizes the importance of involving young people in all aspects of quality of care, from defining quality and respectful care to advocating for quality and providing high-quality services.