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Navigating Uncharted Waters: A Guide to the Legal and Regulatory Environment for Family Planning Services in the Private Sector

The legal and regulatory environment can have a profound affect on the feasibility of reproductive health/family planning (RH/FP) programs. Despite numerous experiences demonstrating their importance, however, most programs still fail to consider this context prior to program design, resulting in constraints to implementation—or even complete failure. This guide helps RH/FP program designers and implementers conduct a legal and regulatory assessment to prevent barriers to programs and address constraints encountered during implementation. The manual focuses on issues relevant to the private health sector, because of its increasing involvement in the provision of RH/FP services. Issues related to the private-sector provision of RH/FP services to youth are included, as many countries have laws and regulations for serving this group. The manual begins with an overview of the potential legal and regulatory issues related to different programmatic areas, followed by a practical guide on how to conduct an assessment. The last part provides strategies to address the legal and regulatory issues identified in the assessment. This guide should help program designers and implementers assess the legal and regulatory environment for their RH/FP programs and, therefore, improve the chances for their projects' success. This manual was developed by the PSP-One project led by Abt Associates.