Abstract
From a public health perspective, the ultimate objective of the total market approach (TMA) for family planning is to achieve increased use of family planning products and services by means of a fully rational and efficiently segmented market, in which key target groups have access to a full range of family planning products and services (USAID, s.d.). In high contraceptive prevalence settings, TMA can also be used to reduce dependence on public funding. TMA requires a coordinated approach in family planning suppliers and donors from the three sectors – the public, nongovernmental organization (NGO), and commercial sectors – work together in a manner that uses their comparative advantage to grow the total market (MEASURE Evaluation & Addis Continental Institute of Public Health, 2014; Pollard, 2007). Because coordination between the sectors is an important element of TMA, it is more likely to succeed when there is an entity that takes responsibility for stewarding this coordination. Ideally, the government recognizes that TMA has the potential to solve important problems pertaining to the family planning market and stewards the coordination between the sectors (Brady, Wedeen, Hutchings, & Jerry, 2016). Brady et al. (2016) identified four major phases that are typically involved in the development of a national TMA plan:
• Landscape assessment
• Indepth analysis of the family planning market
• Development of a TMA plan for family planning
• Implementation and monitoring
