Population Action International

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PAI's Reproductive Health Supplies Partners

July 10, 2007

Shortages of critical reproductive health supplies (RH supplies) around the world are undermining progress towards achieving the Programme of Action established at the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo and the poverty reduction targets included in the Millennium Development Goals. Without supplies, no health or poverty reduction program can be successful.

PAI has been involved in the RH supplies issue since 2001, when an historic meeting occurred in Istanbul, Turkey, marking a turning point for the global community’s involvement in the RH supplies issue. A “Call to Action” was established to raise awareness, increase support and seek solutions to the crisis in supplies. Since this time, several global partners—from NGOs, to the World Bank, to UNFPA, to bilateral donors and private foundations—have helped RH supplies achieve a highly prominent and well supported position.

Despite the successes, need for supplies continually outstrips available funding and the crisis is far from resolved. Awareness remains low at the country level and recipient country governments have yet to prioritize and gain ownership of causes and solutions to supply shortfalls. Developing countries and the regional networks and alliances with whom they partner must be mobilized to take ownership and be empowered to enter and impact the global dialogue and action on RH supplies. Furthermore, networks of NGOs must be mobilized to continue global support for sustainable solutions and financing.

To address this situation, PAI issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) in August 2006, seeking global NGO networks—with both regional and national members/ partners—who are interested in increasing their involvement in the RH supplies issue. Many of the networks who received this RFP had already identified the RH supplies issue as central to their work, but few had fully incorporated it into their advocacy and/or work plans—due to lack of time, resources, staff, etc. The results of the projects follow below. PAI is proud to work with these partners in advancing a common advocacy agenda for RH supplies:

APA, the Asia Pacific Alliance, is a network of non-governmental organizations, donor agencies and overseas development agencies, all collaborating to promote the Programme of Action set forth in the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in 1994 at Cairo. APA works to solidify support and engagement in fulfilling the commitment from all of the APA members to achieving the ICPD goals and objective in the Asia-Pacific Region. Currently, APA has been working to provide an Asia Pacific perspective to the growing body of research and evidence that supports strengthening and maximizing the availability and efficient use of resources for RH supplies. They conducted a survey of members in the region to determine experience and attitudes to the supply issue and presented a report at their annual meeting with a process to incorporate the issue into their advocacy work plan.

ASTRA, the Central and Eastern European Women’s Network for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, is a regional network of organizations and individuals working to create a collective sexual and reproductive health and rights voice for the Central and Eastern European region. ASTRA seeks to not only increase awareness around sexual and reproductive health issues but also ensure they remain a priority on international, regional and national agendas, in particular at the European Union and the United Nations. One of the projects they are working on is assessing the situation within the ASTRA network to determine if reproductive health supplies capacity is meeting the level of need in countries and, where needed, they are creating a supportive political environment to improving access to reproductive health supplies. 

The Global AIDS Alliance is a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit organization working to increase financial resources and advocacy efforts to stop the global AIDS crisis and reduce its devastating impact on poor countries around the world.   They combine both public education and outreach with coalition building and grassroots activities to spark awareness and generate action towards a more comprehensive approach to addressing the global HIV/AIDS crisis. They are currently working on identifying and recommending solutions to the procurement of Reproductive Health (RH) supplies by the Global Fund as part of an ongoing effort to scale up the Fund’s implementation of integrated SRH and HIV/AIDS programs.  They produced an advocacy brief examining the procurement policies and procedures of the Global Fund.  The brief focuses on the procurement of reproductive health supplies, including condoms; and provides recommendations for action by key stakeholders. 

ICASO, the International Council of AIDS Service Organizations, is an international NGO comprised of regional networks of community-based organizations working to promote HIV advocacy, networking and capacity building.   ICASO uses both its policy and advocacy experience to promote community-led monitoring of country-level HIV responses, enabling it to quickly respond and react to the international policy agenda.  As a partner, they have worked to build advocacy efforts to change national, regional and international policies, laws and practices to support universal access to the full-range of effective HIV prevention services and supplies.  They have not only increased regional capacity knowledge of potential barriers of access of condoms, but also strengthened organizations’ ability to advocate for and provide for more accessibility in the future.  They produced a document aimed at increasing the understanding and knowledge of these barriers in order to strengthen the capacity of member organizations to effectively create a comprehensive response to HIV.

LACWHN, the Latin American and Caribbean Women’s Health Network, is a group of organizations and individuals dedicated to promoting women’s sexual and reproductive rights and providing a unique perspective on women through a cultural, political and social lens.  LACWHN seeks to increase the capacity, commitment and action of women in the Latin American and Caribbean region.  The organization is currently working to identify potential interest and current experiences among LACWHN member organizations to see if reproductive health supplies is  considered a feasible health and policy issue for the network to take on in a more substantive manner. They prepared a document to determine the level of knowledge, involvement, interest and experience in the supply issue, as well as created a virtual forum for this discussion to be conducted. 

Ensuring reproductive health supplies get to the women and men who want and need them is essential to achieving global development goals, from reducing poverty to improving maternal and child mortality rates to curbing the spread of HIV. Partnerships like these help increase awareness of supply shortages and mobilize support for improvements to the financing and distribution of supplies, bringing the world one step closer to preventing supply stock outs and achieving international development goals.

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