Now that the fundamentals of an ABC/M application have been discussed, it is helpful to understand the activities that occur within each step of a typical ABC/M application. Keep in mind that these descriptions are intentionally broad and can be adjusted to reflect in-country needs.

First, and most importantly, before a country application of an ABC/M costing exercise, researchers should ensure there is interest in the costing results, and the capacity to perform the costing. To accomplish this, the following steps should be taken before the costing activity begins:

• Ensure it is a country-owned effort with both interest and technical capacity
• Establish an in-country steering committee
• Plan to build institutional capacity
• Perform both an ecosystem mapping (how and where are clients receiving FP services?) and a data systems mapping (what data is currently available?) to inform study design Implementation steps in a typical application:

The next topic, An ABC/M Country Application: Data Sources, will discuss sources of data to help create the baseline information needed to complete the steps mentioned above.