Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition provided the following updates on progress in achieving its FP2020 commitments:
Under the auspices of the Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition, Secretariat staff and members of the Advocacy and Accountability Working Group (formerly known as RMA WG) launched an interactive online platform—www.supplypromises.org—that provides easy access to close to 140 supply-related commitments made by governments and development agencies over the last decade, shares lessons on their implementation, and offers guidance on the formulation of new commitments.1
- The Coalition also completed an analysis of the country-level commitments contained within “supplypromises.org,” which gleans lessons from a decade of supplies commitments, and clarifies the processes and rationale behind them.2
- The Coalition is applying the lessons derived from this analysis in Uganda, where in 2014 it launched an initiative to galvanize multisectoral support and national ownership needed to accelerate progress on Uganda’s reproductive health supplies promises to FP2020, the UN Commission on Life Saving Commodities for Women and Children and Every Women, Every Child. The Coalition has convened members and local partners in Uganda to unpack Uganda’s commitments and build consensus around a set of achievable joint targets, identified by partners, to yield the greatest returns. The resulting joint strategy is providing the backbone for enhanced coordination and focused action by local stakeholders to accelerate progress on Uganda’s commitments.
- The Coalition is launching two field-based initiatives in Ghana and Burkina Faso to advance supply-related commitments made at the London Family Planning Summit. These initiatives will see the Coalition work with members and partners in Burkina Faso and Ghana to reinvigorate efforts by local champions to turn national reproductive health supplies commitments into actions.
- In building www.supplypromises.org and completing the analysis of the process and rationale behind governments making commitments, the Coalition learned how difficult it is to extract commodity security from other broader reproductive health commitments. The Coalition also came to appreciate the wide range of motivations that drive countries to make commitments in the first place. Commitments are a highly effective development tool but also one very prone to attrition and turnover at the country, and especially the government, level.
[1] The supplypromises.org online platform is also featured on the K4Health toolkit (https://www.k4health.org/toolkits/fp-logistics/supply-promises) and the Procurement Management Toolbox (http://www.psmtoolbox.org/en/tool-details|Distribution|SupplyPromises-online-database-of-reproductive-health-supplies-commitments|515)
2 “Analysis of the Dynamics Surrounding Reproductive Health Supplies Commitments” is available on the RHSC web site at http://www.rhsupplies.org/uploads/tx_rhscpublications
