As 2019 draws to a close, we thank you, our members, for all the achievements we celebrate here. We made significant gains across our four strategic pillars, while at the same time responding proactively to the emergence of new priorities. We applied a supplies lens to the burgeoning field of menstrual health; we explored the challenges of delivering needed commodities to humanitarian settings; and we broadened the scope of what we include within the rubric of maternal health supplies. This year, we also mapped the complex ecosystem for reproductive health supplies; we projected the costs of a growing global demand for contraceptives; and we explored the implications of who will likely cover those costs. Finally, our membership roster surpassed 500; we launched new tools that have already yielded unparalleled cost savings; and we witnessed a groundswell of global support behind our Family Planning VAN. Please join us as we celebrate the achievements of a truly remarkable 2019.
The Coalition’s landmark report, Creating an Effective and Sustainable Ecosystem for RH Supplies by 2030 is helping health care planners recognize the challenges likely to arise in the coming decade, rather than project today’s challenges into the future. We analyzed exclusive data, tapped into the insight of industry leaders and left no stone unturned in creating a one-of-a-kind forecast into the reproductive health scene leading up to 2030.
Following on from the initial success of the Global Family Planning VAN, we saw the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, DFID, UNFPA and USAID double their investments in it, thereby laying the groundwork for expansion into Ghana, Francophone West Africa and Ethiopia in early 2020.
Two new business intelligence tools are helping public sector procurers in Latin America negotiate better terms of sale, estimate the impact of their actions, and advocate for greater public investment in family planning. Market data made available through one tool, SEPREMI, enabled three countries to save US$3.3M, which they re-invested in additional supply orders.
With too few suppliers and too few procurers, neither side can afford to take the other for granted. Our new series of blogs is helping manufacturers get their voices heard in an increasingly precarious market for reproductive health supplies.
By transitioning to a new interactive format, this year’s Commodity Gap Analysis 2019 helps readers answer critical questions by tailoring data to meet their unique research needs. The online report allows users to filter results by country or country groupings.
Our Safe Abortion Supplies Workstream joined a successful drive to move mifepristone-misoprostol from the Complementary to the Core Model List of Essential Medicines. This single move removed a critical barrier to safe abortion access by eliminating the need for specialized diagnostics, monitoring or care.
This year, we doubled the value of every dollar invested in the Coalition. We generated cost savings of more than $3.3M, much of it in Latin America. We drove over $13.9M in new product procurement through our Coordinated Supply Planning Group; and our members contributed over $1M in kind to support Coalition initiatives. We also allocated over $618K in small grants to 11 Coalition member organizations.
We are taking trust to the next level by forging a single Terms of Use agreement for the Global Family Planning VAN, thereby doing away with the multiple non-disclosure agreements that characterize most data sharing today. Users can drill-down on dashboards to look across 2,190 orders and 1,880 shipments across 113 countries for 30 products.
Fifteen years ago, we entered this world with 16 members huddled around a new idea. This year, we crossed the 500-member mark, and that “new idea” has grown into a global movement.
Since 2018, the Coalition’s Regional Forum for Latin America – ForoLAC – has raised more than $2M to support reproductive health initiatives in Latin America. The work has seen national governments improve procurement terms and reinvest savings in new product procurement. It has seen rural health authorities secure budget increases of up to 60 percent; and it has expanded contraceptive access through midwife networks in Peru.
