The purpose of the global civil society meetings is to bring together disconnected civil society networks to work on RH Supplies issues. Objectives of these meeting include learning about achievements and shortcomings of current RH Supplies advocacy initiatives, exploring linkages between global, regional, and national strategies, and exchanging views about upcoming advocacy challenges and opportunities and ways to address them.
- First Regional Supply Meeting in East Africa: This innovative workshop was the result of collaboration between Project RMA, UNFPA, Partners in Population and Development (PPD) and the East African Reproductive Health Network (EARHN). Membership of the EARHN is made up of nine ministries from the East African countries, and the network was launched by PPD over a decade ago to ensure both political will for RH issues and a mechanism for working to ensure implementation of RH policies, frameworks and other agreements. The workshop, which was convened as a strategic planning meeting for the EARHN, provided a unique opportunity for Project RMA to ensure that the reproductive health supply issue was included in a multi-year planning document prepared by government representatives from 5 East Africa countries. That EARHN not only highlighted commodity security at the meeting, but has fully taken on board the importance of promoting the issue, is a significant achievement for RH supplies advocacy.
- Regional Supply Platform Meeting in West Africa: Project RMA, in collaboration with USAID and KfW, organised two on-line conferences addressing family planning and RH supplies in Francophone Africa. The conferences were held online in July and November 2007. The three-day, internet-based conference (part 2) offered up to 300 participants from francophone African countries in diverse locations the opportunity to exchange ideas, practices, and resources in repositioning family. Mali, Senegal, Madagascar, and Rwanda participated in the sessions on "Capacity, Contraceptives, Communications" that focused on contraceptive security from the national level down to the service delivery points, with special emphasis on last mile issues.
- First Regional Training in East Africa: In tandem with PPD Africa Regional Office, Project RMA conducted a workshop utilizing the RH Supplies Advocacy Toolkit. The high level of knowledge, interest and commitment shown by Members of Parliament from the East-African countries was a result of the intense activities undertaken by Project RMA in this region. Women Parliamentarians from Uganda described their victory of gaining more money for RH Supplies themselves. They have momentum and are utilizing the issue to raise the awareness of their fellow Members of Parliament. The meeting was attended by Parliamentarians from 18 Southern and East African countries along with other key stakeholders. The toolkit, lessons learned and the opportunity for participants to learn from one another were the highlights of the meeting.
- Second Regional Training in East Africa: Project RMA also held a second training in East Africa as part of a session of a meeting for African Partner Country Collaborators (PCC). These are technical staff from Ministries of Population and Health in 13 African countries who have been tasked with coordinating their country's South-South activities. The meeting took place September 23rd to 26th in Kampala, Uganda.
- Third Regional Training in South-East Asia: In conjunction with the RMA working group, Project RMA held an introduction to the RH Supplies Advocacy Toolkit for members and guests of the Asia Pacific Alliance (APA). This training took place on October 7th as part of the APA General Meeting in Chiang Mai, Thailand. APA is also a sub grantee within the global level Project RMA activities and has been working on the RH Supply issue for the last three years.
