An Individual Focused, Facility-Based Provider Behavior Change (PBC) Intervention to Improve Contraceptive Services for Youth and Adolescents: Exploration and Evaluation of the Beyond Bias Solution

Abstract for Preformed Panel Presentation from the 2022 International SBCC Summit in Morocco:

"Quality of a client-provider interaction is largely determined by the behavior of providers. Despite interventions focusing on provider training and supervision, efforts have been insufficient to effectively shift provider behaviors for contraceptive service delivery. Beyond Bias employed a multidisciplinary approach which involved human centered design, segmentation analysis, behavioral economics, and rigorous formative assessment in order to develop an integrated Provider Behavior Change (PBC) intervention designed to address provider bias. As a novel facility based PBC intervention, the results of the evaluation suggest that the Beyond Bias solution was effective at changing provider attitudes and beliefs to be less biased. In Tanzania and Pakistan, this led to improved patient centered care and better client experiences, but not in Burkina Faso. Despite improvements in care, there was limited evidence that this intervention impacted the types of contraceptive methods received among young women. Further research and evaluation need to be undertaken to ascertain how facility-level interventions can be enhanced through complementary strategies operating at the community and institutional levels to account for the larger structural and community level factors and prevalent social and cultural norms that impact provider behavior. Future work should explore whether coupling the Beyond Bias intervention with community outreach efforts can increase contraceptive use for young women who would not otherwise come into the clinic."