As we complete our eleventh year, we single out eleven milestones, each of which is a testament to the work of our global Secretariat and the commitment of our membership. By leveraging the power of our growing partnership, we look ahead confidently to making sure that women and men can better choose, obtain and use the affordable, quality-assured supplies they need to ensure their better sexual and reproductive health.
We got people speaking the same language on stockouts
The Coalition launched “Take Stock”, a global campaign designed to get our community to speak the same language on stockouts, mobilize public health leaders including ministries of health, and gather the commitments of more than 45 Coalition members to spur real action to address them. For the first time, core stockout indicators established by the Take Stock movement were included among the 17 indicators used by FP2020 to measure progress toward achieving the goal of 120 million new contraceptive users by the year 2020.
We helped channel an additional US$122M to the cause of supplies
Coalition leveraged more than US$122M in additional resources (ex-core funding) to support our own work and the cause of RH commodity security more broadly. While most of this came from savings associated with lower implant prices, nearly US$4M came from new CSP-driven procurement of commodities, cash and in-kind contributions to Coalition events, and co-funding of new Coalition initiatives, including Innovation Fund awards.
We helped refine long-term global forecasts for implants and injectables
We increased access to information on the need for implants and injectables so that product volumes meet demand and budget allocations can be more accurate. The Coordinated Supply Planning (CSP) group, a SSWG workstream, released its new five-year forecasts for implants and injectables, offering manufacturers, procurers and donors access to more accurate information on contraceptive implant and injectable needs. The new forecasts balance consumption and historical shipment data, and improve the prospects for a more stable global market.
We averted supply stockouts and saved millions in the process
We enabled four African countries to secure stocks of contraceptives and in doing so helped prevent a potential 66,728 unwanted pregnancies. The Coordinated Assistance for Reproductive Health Supplies (CARhs) group expedited the shipment of tens of thousands female condoms and oral contraceptives to Ghana, in the wake of a devastating fire at its Central Medical Stores. CARhs also realized nearly half a million Dollars in savings by redirecting excess stocks of implants and IUDs to countries where they could be used.
We drove more than $3.6M in new procurement of implants and injectables
We helped the CARh’s sister workstream, the Coordinated Supply Planning Group (or CSP for short), drive the procurement of US$3.6 million of commodities to avert stockouts of both DMPA and oral contraceptives. We also financed a new data management platform that will help the CSP to improve forecasting, coordinate procurement decisions more effectively across buyers, and allow for international donors and in-country partners to work together to prevent stockouts. The platform includes critical upgrades to the Reproductive Health Interchange (RHI) and Procurement Planning Monitoring Report (PPMR).
We’re helping to shape the future of an RH–friendly Global Financing Facility
We worked to ensure that the design of the new Global Financing Facility (GFF) better reflects the concerns and priorities of our community, from manufacturers to civil society to technical agencies. Through regular e-blasts, an email bulletin series, “Connecting the Dots”, and through our weekly GFF Advisory Group teleconference calls, we worked together to shape the future agenda for RH supplies. As the GFF moved from conceptualization to action, we mobilized members at the country-level to get civil society engaged, and to raise the profile of family planning.
We’ve opened the door to greater engagement with China
We strengthened our ties with China. A round table discussion with experts from government, pharma, and civil society opened our eyes to China’s tremendous potential to help meet the RH supplies needs of women and men around the world. We have since then strengthened our ties with China, engaging a Beijing-based coordinator to channel critical information to and from colleagues in China; and we published several communiqués in Chinese, including the first two Chinese quarterly editions of the Coalition’s e-newsletter, SupplyInsider.
We’re showing the human face behind an empty shelf
We supported research by Ibis Reproductive Health that puts a human face on the scourge of stockouts. While quantitative indicators can aptly describe the magnitude of the problem, they are far less effective at capturing its impact on the lives of women forced to leave a clinic empty handed—or on the providers who, as often as not, blame themselves for the lack of supplies. With funding from the Coalition, Ibis has explored what stockouts mean to those affected by them.
We helped Uganda hold itself accountable to meet FP2020 commitments
We successfully demonstrated the power of partnership when it comes to delivering on supply-related commitments to key global initiatives, including FP2020. Advocacy efforts led by Samasha Medical Foundation and the Africa Regional Office of Partners in Population and Development are bearing fruit as 22 of the 25 indicators identified by national partners near completion.
We’re taking the guesswork out of quality and affordability through Doctorstore
We funded Pregna International Ltd. to pioneer Doctorstore, an e-commerce portal for RH commodities, generating more than 43,000 CYPs since its launch earlier this year. With a grant from the Coalition’s Innovation Fund, Doctorstore has allowed more than 1,000 doctors from across Maharashtra, India to purchase a range of quality-assured RH commodities directly from suppliers.
We’re now 360 partners strong
We welcomed 36 new organizations to the Coalition, bringing our total membership to 360. Nearly two-thirds of the new members were from the Global South, including first-time representatives from El Salvador and the Government of Burkina Faso.