April 2009 in Review
In the spotlight
Stop The Stock-outs!

Stop The Stock-outs is the name of an ambitious new campaign aimed at getting African governments to ensure the availability of essential medicines by increasing and specifying national budgetary allocations for medicines, and by ensuring greater efficiency and transparency in procurement and distribution. The brainchild of new Coalition member Health Action International Africa (HAI Africa), Oxfam, the Open Society Institute and 12 civil society partners, Stop The Stock-outs is now underway in Kenya, Malawi, Madagascar, Uganda, and Zambia. In the words of the campaign's organizers, "The failure to properly stock public health clinics and pharmacies with essential medicines stems in part from economic constraints and bureaucratic obstacles. But above all, it is a failure of political will. If governments commit to having medicines on pharmacy shelves, they can do it."

As Coalition members continue to advocate for the inclusion of RH supplies on national essential medicine lists, we look forward to working with our new colleagues at Stop The Stock-outs. For information on the campaign, contact info@stopstockouts.org or visit their new website.

Coalition on the scene
Tenth Membership Meeting details

Book your hotel. Members wishing to attend the London Membership Meeting are encouraged to book their accommodations at City Inn Westminster as soon as possible to ensure access to the preferential rates of £145 (standard single) and £155 (standard double), including breakfast. To receive our promotional rate, bookings must be made directly with the hotel, using the promotional code NEGRH5. Please view the meeting webpage for more information.

Meeting calendar. Venues and times are now available on the meeting webpage. Please check back frequently for the most up-to-date information to plan your trip.

Mon. 1

 


Tues. 2

 


Wed. 3

 


Thurs. 4

 


Fri. 5


Market Development Approaches Working Group meeting 

Systems Strengthening Working Group meeting

 



Market Development Approaches Working Group meeting 

AccessRH meeting

 


 
Resource Mobilization and Awareness Working Group meeting

Executive Committee meeting

Caucus on New and Underused RH Technologies meeting

IPPF and Coalition reception

 

 


Coalition membership meeting

 

 

 



Coalition membership meeting

 

Uganda becomes first African government to join Coalition

This month, the Government of Uganda, represented by its Ministry of Health (MOH), became the first African government to join the Coalition. The MOH seeks to address the country’s RH health needs by integrating population and demographic factors at all planning levels, promoting positive health-seeking behaviour, and reducing the unmet need for family planning. This year, the MOH completed its Strategic Plan to achieve RH commodity security, building on the results of an initial national needs assessment.  

Coalition welcomes three additional members

In addition to the Government of Uganda, the Coalition welcomed three other members, bringing our total membership to 87:

Secretariat launches new GoogleGroups addresses

To facilitate Working Group correspondence, the Secretariat has created three new GoogleGroups listserves. The new addresses make it easier to keep group contacts up to date and eliminate the need for members to search endlessly for the most recent group-wide correspondence.  If you are a regular Working Group member and have not yet received a GoogleGroups invitation or a notification of your membership on any listserve, please contact Gloria Castany at the Secretariat.

The Donor Gap: now updated and online

In 2001, the Interim Working Group on Reproductive Health Commodity Security, a forerunner of today’s Coalition, published what would arguably become one of the most effective tools for galvanizing international support on behalf of reproductive health commodity security. The report, Contraceptive Projections and the Donor Gap, envisioned increasing shortfalls in the availability of donor resources required to satisfy the growing unmet need for contraceptive supplies. Eight years on, funding from USAID | DELIVER has enabled the Coalition to update the report and reposition it as an effective advocacy tool in the years to come. The report, now available online, offers a frank and fascinating portrayal of both past successes and the many challenges ahead.

Highlights from the Working Groups
Systems Strengthening Working Group (SSWG)

RHInterchange: This month, the Uganda Ministry of Health began submitting data on all contraceptives purchased since 2006 with Government of Uganda funds. The Institute for Reproductive Health (IRH) and the Nepal Ministry of Health and Population have updated their information. And finally, UNFPA has revised its figures from 2004 onwards to reflect actual, rather than average, total landed cost of orders.

On the Web: Now available online is Optimizing the Reproductive Health Supply Chain: A User’s Guide to Software. Commissioned by the SSWG with support from USAID | DELIVER and the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, the user’s guide helps reproductive health supply chain managers make better-informed decisions when selecting software. The report analyses six public-domain software applications currently in use to manage supply chain functions. These include CHANNEL, Country Commodities Manager (CCM), PipeLine, Quantimed, Reproductive Health Interchange (RHI), and Supply Chain Manager.

Making connections: This month, Kevin Pilz (USAID) met with Bioforce, a French nongovernmental organization that offers training in health and humanitarian logistics. Bioforce is currently collaborating with WHO AFRO and UNICEF on a host of activities, many of which are in line with the objectives of the SSWG’s professionalization of logisticians workstream. These include raising the profile of logisticians and harmonizing approaches to health logistics across the international development community. During his meeting, Kevin briefed Bioforce staff on the work of the SSWG and discussed possibilities for future collaboration. He also introduced them to USAID | DELIVER, highlighting potential opportunities for joint work in francophone West Africa.

AccessRH: Earlier this month, UNFPA's Procurement Services Branch project team met with staff from JSI to carry out a detailed planning and modeling exercise that will help guide future operations of the AccessRH mechanism. Applications to finance the management and implementation of AccessRH have been submitted to donors and are currently under review. The project’s interim management team, which has to date been funded by UNFPA, is expected to wind down operations in May. 

Countries at Risk (CAR):  The CAR continues to coordinate global donor responses to emergency stock issues and information requests. During this month’s teleconference, UNFPA advised CAR members that it had Depo-Provera, female condoms, and Microgynon on hand to avert anticipated stockouts in Kenya. Meanwhile, members also learned of pending stocks-outs of Depo and Microval in Tanzania. Although World Bank funds should become available following the completion of an external audit of the country’s basket fund, this could take some time, so CAR members are exploring interim responses. Finally, in Uganda, a shortfall of Microgynon should soon be relieved as UNFPA’s shipment arrives on May 20.

In Asia, Bangladesh remains without implants. UNFPA has, however, allocated US$500,000 for additional stocks; once it receives the green light from the Directorate General of Family Planning, 26,500 units of Implanon can be in country within two to four weeks. Finally, UNFPA reports that shipments of the emergency contraceptive Postinor should be in Paraguay by mid-June. At the same time, concerns were expressed over possible leaks of this product into the private sector. For more information contact Kevin Pilz.

Resource Mobilization and Awareness Working Group (RMA WG)

Project RMA: Project RMA was heavily involved in successful advocacy efforts at the 42nd Session of the United Nations Commission on Population and Development (CPD), resulting in RH supplies being featured multiple times in the final resolution. When Project RMA partners learned that the initial draft would not refer to RH supplies, they suggested language to key contacts, which was then included in the initial draft sent to governments. Project RMA also submitted an oral statement focusing on RH supplies, with partners and subgrantees signing on in support. These successes lead to new advocacy entry points for RH supplies advocates. Though the final resolution is nonbinding, advocates can use this governmental commitment to advocate for increased access to RH supplies.

Advocacy in action in Tanzania: This month Tanzania’s 2008/09 budget allocation for family planning was finally released, thanks in no small part to the advocacy efforts of UMATI, Tanzania’s IPPF Member Association. As the country’s financial year was entering its final quarter with no imminent sign of movement by the Ministry of Finance, UMATI briefed a local media group, the Editors Forum, which in turn raised the issue with the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance. Within a week, the funds were released. 

Upcoming Events

1 May Innovation Fund deadline, Round 2
4-8 May 4th AU Conference of Ministers of Health “Universal Access to Quality Health Services: Improve Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health”, Addis Ababa
7 May MDA WG Teleconference
27-29 May Messaging Workshop on Population Issues, SRHR, and RH Supplies - EuroNGOs and Countdown 2015, Brussels. Contact Mirja Leibnitz or An Huybrechts for further information
28 May CAR Teleconference
1 June Abstract submission deadline for International Conference on Family Planning: Research and Best Practices, Kampala. Contact Sabrina Karklins for more information.
15 June Coalition Annual Membership and Working Group Meetings, London
25 June CAR Teleconference
26 June MexFam Forum on Contraceptive Access and Unmet Need among Adolescents, in collaboration with UNFPA, Mexico. Contact Lorena Santos or Sarah Shaw for more information.
1518 Nov International Conference on Family Planning: Research and Best Practices, Kampala. Contact Sabrina Karklins for more information.

For more details on the above and other events, see the events calendar on the Coalition website.

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