Outreach Negotiation Counseling (ONC) – A technique applied from health services to meet men’s needs and increase Male Involvement in Family Planning

Legalized use of modern family planning methods is relatively new in Albania. Prior to the fall of communism, health services were prohibited to offer family planning.
Actually Family Planning (FP) is now a service offered all over the country in commune level with trained physicians and nurse-midwives to counsel for FP, provide contraceptives, and Logistic Management Information system.
Last ALRHS and ALDHS confirmed that Albanians achieved a TFR of 2.6, primarily through using withdrawal and relying on abortion as a backup method.
While a lot of investments are done from the supply side, the demand side seems to need more effort for increasing the contraceptive use. Albanian couples need to be provided with information on contraceptive methods. Based on the formative research results, an “ONC” was piloted it in two districts in Albania. The intent of ONC approach was to increase couple’s access to information about the benefits of FP and the modern methods available to help couples achieve their reproductive health goals.
After first negotiation counseling, a large proportion of couples changed their behavior yielding a rate of nearly 42.5 % new users from those visited second time concluding that: ONC should be conceptualized as an ongoing process.