Standards and Guidelines

Jhpiego has worked in more than 40 countries to develop, adapt and disseminate up-to-date, evidence-based reproductive health standards and guidelines on issues such as family planning, essential maternal and newborn health care, HIV/AIDS, infection prevention and control, malaria prevention and treatment, and cervical cancer prevention and treatment. The development and use of these standards and guidelines have been a crucial aspect in improving health care services and reducing barriers to high-quality care worldwide.

• Standards describe what action should be taken and serve as benchmarks against which to judge performance.
   
• Policy guidelines for reproductive health care are a government’s official statement about the country’s standards and reflect the health care situation in the country. They describe which services are offered, who delivers and receives the services, how and where they will be delivered, and what the minimal acceptable level of performance is for each service offered.
   
• Service delivery guidelines provide the detailed, technical information needed to implement the national policy guidelines. Health care providers use service delivery guidelines in their work as a source of specific, up-to-date information about the health services offered in a country as well as a source of general information to provide high-quality care.

Jhpiego uses a participatory approach, which fosters in-country participation and ownership, to the development and implementation of standards and guidelines. The process engages a country’s key stakeholders, decision-makers and other leaders to ensure responsiveness to the country’s needs and to foster the broad acceptance necessary for implementation by health care providers. Standards and guidelines are also critical elements in reproductive health education and training, serving as the foundation for curriculum development in both preservice education and training of practicing professionals. They lead to improved quality of service delivery and ultimately to the reduction of long-term disability and death in the most vulnerable populations.

Evaluation studies conducted in a number of countries—including Bolivia, Brazil (Bahia and Ceará states), Ghana, Guatemala, Kenya, Peru and Turkey—have demonstrated the impact and sustainability of guidelines developed and disseminated with Jhpiego’s assistance.

More Information

For related Jhpiego publications and materials, see Publications. For additional information on Jhpiego's experience and capabilities in this area, contact us.