Family Planning CIP Costing Tool: User Guide, April 2017

The tool was developed to standardize the CIP costing approach across countries and streamline the process of revising inputs as countries update their commitments and implementation strategies. The tool is Excel-based and includes pre-loaded equations, making it easier and quicker for new users to generate data. It can be used at the national level and at subnational levels where lower-level CIPs have been developed to help policymakers, decision-makers, partners, and donors better plan and advocate for an effective FP strategy. The tool is structured around priority thematic areas, which are identified by countries through the CIP process as crucial to developing and implementing an effective FP program. Activities included in the CIP document are then organized by these thematic areas. Data inputs for the costing tool are country-specific and require in-country meetings to determine and validate the CIP's goals, targets, thematic areas, and activities that will guide the cost analysis. The costing tool is organized around thematic areas that the user has identified for their CIP. There is room to include up to 10 different thematic areas, and the tool is pre-loaded with seven common examples as defaults. These areas represent the most common, broad categories of an effective FP program, but users should review and update them to ensure that they reflect the country's vision for its program. The tool uses Excel to calculate the costs of thematic areas. Data necessary for costing are entered into green cells, while the software auto-fills the tan cells. Purple cells are used for the gap analysis. Excel software was chosen for ease of use, and data can easily be overwritten and additional graphs can be generated for analysis. The costing tool is intended to help national ministry officials, parliamentarians, and partner and donor organizations better plan for an effective national FP program. It can also be adapted for subnational application. The tool helps decision-makers answer the following questions: How much funding is required to achieve all planned activities over the CIP's duration? How much will it cost per year to implement the FP program as described in the CIP? How much will it cost to fulfill all FP commitments (FP2020, Ouagadougou Partnership, etc.)? The tool is designed to be user-friendly and adaptable to the local context in which it is applied. It is an update from earlier versions of the CIP Costing and Gap Analysis tools, in which data were captured in separate Excel tools and required manual linking to provide the user with outputs related to funding gaps. The tool integrates the gap analysis function, allowing funding inputs to interact directly with the funding requirements and providing outputs related to the funding available for each activity in the CIP. As of October 2016, 26 countries and sub-national regions have developed their CIPs. The Family Planning CIP Costing Tool is a resource designed for use either by country planners and FP decision-makers or by external consultants supporting the development and costing of the CIP. It enables cross-country comparison and information sharing by standardizing CIP costing methodology among countries. The tool is an update of the USAID-funded Health Policy Project's 2015 Family Planning CIP Costing Tool and User Guide and Family Planning CIP Gap Analysis Tool and User Guide. It is produced by Health Policy Plus (HP+), a five-year cooperative agreement funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development under Agreement No. AID-OAA-A-15-00051, beginning August 28, 2015.