First Global Meeting - Kampala, Uganda
Project RMA held its first Reproductive Health supplies advocacy meeting, "Linking Civil Society Networks in Knowledge and Action," on April 24-25 in Kampala, Uganda. Civil society networks, Project RMA sub-grantees and partners, as well as representatives from UNFPA and other technical experts were invited to take part in this forum for action-oriented coordination. The participants of the meeting, including representatives from each of the global subgrantee organizations, exchanged experiences from advocacy strategies undertaken in the area of RH supplies at the global, regional, and national levels and discussed how to develop linkages between them so that efforts mutually reinforce each other.
Additional goals of the meeting included giving networks newer to the RH supplies issue insight into how to effectively address it within their membership; helping participants become aware of some of the strong linkages among advocacy efforts at the global, regional, and national levels and identify and support these linkages in their own advocacy strategies; introducing mechanisms for stakeholders to communicate and share ideas to sustain coordinated advocacy efforts. The meeting’s highlight was a short site visit to a supply warehouse called the National Medical Stores, which allowed participants to discuss specific advocacy activities to be undertaken in partnership with Ugandan government officials in order to avoid condom stockouts in the country in 2008.
Second Global Meeting - Accra, Ghana
Project RMA hosted a civil society meeting entitled "Global Policy Frameworks: Turning Commitment into Access for RH Supplies" on November 19 - 21, 2008 in Accra, Ghana. The strategic gathering included a diverse group of regional and global NGO networks, national stakeholders from Ghana, and representatives of several key global institutions and coalitions. The meeting recognized the importance of coordination and information sharing in the progress that has been made in the past 5 years with the creation of a forum like the Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition and the development of tools such as the Reproductive Health Interchange, the SupplyNews newsletter and the RH Supplies Advocacy Toolkit. Never before have advocates had more opportunities to access evidence-based information to advance the RH supplies agenda at the national, regional and international levels. This meeting was one of many efforts underway to disseminate the tools and make them more accessible and useful to civil society.
The Accra meeting also took stock of the new global landscape (e.g., financial crises, the new U.S. administration in 2009, different aid modalities) that impacts advocacy for RH supplies. An overview of regional policy frameworks, such as the Maputo Plan of Action and its RH supplies indicators, were also provided as advocacy entry points to meeting commitments around RH supplies. The meeting also focused on the upcoming ICPD + 15 process and the importance of linking it to the MDG + 10 review by raising the visibility of target 5 b (achieving universal access to reproductive health care by 2015) and the importance of RH supplies in reaching such target. The role of civil society in both processes is of paramount significance. First hand insight into the country situation of RH supplies in Ghana through site visits to a youth center and clinic and the Central Medical Store was also included in the meeting agenda. The meeting report is now available. Click here to access the full report.
