DATA & TOOLS
VAN
The Global Family Planning Visibility and Analytics Network (VAN) improves women’s lives by ensuring the right contraceptive reaches them on time, connecting data and supply chain experts with decision-makers, procurers, and manufacturers to unblock product flow. More than technology, it is a trusted network of 150+ organizations running an effective family planning supply chain.
On this page:
What Is the VAN?
In the face of shrinking development resources, reaching the unmet contraceptive need of millions of women requires more effective and efficient family planning supply chains. The Global Family Planning Visibility and Analytics Network (VAN) is a one-of-a-kind collaborative supply chain management platform that offers its members a network to assess supply needs, prioritize the needs, and act when supply imbalances loom.
The VAN facilitates better aggregation, sharing, and alignment of country demand data with production, procurement, and funding to avoid stock imbalances and maximize use of limited resources to ensure continuous availability and choice of family planning products in developing countries.
Both the VAN and the VAN RHViz increase visibility into contraceptive product flow to countries, are grounded in the same data, and together are considered the VAN Network. The difference is the VAN is a collaborative supply chain management platform supporting decisions on product flow (by country governments, procurers, suppliers), whereas the VAN RHViz aggregates order and shipment data to provide visibility to those not directly involved in product flow decisions.
VAN
The VAN helps supply chain actors plan collaboratively and make decisions to ensure (a) more timely and cost-effective delivery of commodities to countries, (b) more women are reached with the right product at the right time, and (c) better coordination in allocating limited health resources.
VAN RHViz
The VAN Reproductive Health Supplies Visualizer (VAN RHViz) provides a series of public dashboards that aggregate and visualize order and shipment data from the VAN.
How Does the VAN Work?
The VAN works by focusing on four areas: People, Processes, Policy and Technology.
People
Linking together procurers, manufacturers, shippers, and country governments in a network focused on product flow into countries.
Processes
Transforming the way VAN members interact, analyze data, and make decisions.
Policy
Governing data use and sharing through harmonized policies.
Technology
Capturing data from many sources, facilitating data harmonization, and consolidating tools for use by members of the VAN.
Collaboration & Planning
Collaboration and planning are at the heart of the VAN. It is a collaborative supply chain management platform that enables its 150+ member organizations, of which 39 are governments, to track thousands of shipments and products across hundreds of countries. The improved visibility allows country governments to work with their partners to better avoid stockouts and plan what to buy and when.
From 2020 to 2025, the VAN helped procurers work with governments to mobilize and/or allocate more than $182 million in new orders, avoided waste by supporting at least $5.6 million worth of canceled and transferred orders, and helped expedite 124 orders to mitigate supply.
The VAN Consensus Planning Group (CPG)
The VAN Consensus Planning Group (VAN CPG) helps prevent countries from having too few supplies to meet contraceptive needs or too many supplies to be consumed before they expire. It does so by convening the key procuring and funding entities to continuously and collaboratively review VAN data to coordinate shipments and allocate resources appropriately within and among countries. The VAN CPG works to prevent imbalances from happening in the first place and remedy any imbalances that do occur.
- Provides a forum for donors, procurers, and partners to discuss and solve supply-related issues that affect availability of family planning products.
- Analyzes data and recommends actions to maximize available resources.
- Aligns and prioritizes planned orders so that manufacturers can fulfill requests accordingly.
- Forecasts future product demand and provides regular updates to donors, suppliers, and other stakeholders.
- Quantifies the funding gap between supply needs and available financing, and shares it to help mobilize additional funds.
Stocks & Stockouts
For more than a decade, RHSC has helped governments and other partners respond to stock crises that could lead to stockouts, overstocks, expiration, wastage, and, ultimately, empty hands.
With our partners, we’ve identified threats, rushed deliveries, arranged product transfers, and driven new procurement.
Orders & Shipments
The VAN’s power resides in its ability to harmonize data descriptions. Integrating and aggregating supply chain inventory, order, and shipment data from across many different organizations and entities into one platform provides users with a comprehensive view of data that was not possible in the past.
Members can use the VAN to:
- Analyze their supply data against their supply needs.
- Compare global order and shipment timelines to stock-on-hand data.
- Prioritize supply needs based on the data analytics.
- Alert partners of pending supply imbalances.
- Coordinate with partners to take action and mitigate pending concerns.
VAN Resources
This repository includes reports on the VAN’s impact and learnings, and templates to support other health areas interested in creating a similar platform.
Life in Numbers – Global FP VAN
What is the VAN?
What role does the VAN play in enhancing country coordination?
Meet the VAN Ambassadors: Dr. Clétus Adohinzin
Meet the VAN Ambassadors: Claudette Diogo
Meet the VAN Ambassadors: Jean Claude Kabera
Meet the VAN Ambassadors: Dr. Abram Agossou
Real-World Impact
The VAN’s more than 150 member organizations can track in real time
over 14,000 shipments of 89 products across 156 countries.
$182 Million
New Orders
The improved data visibility and collaborative supply chain management provided by the VAN are enabling members to act faster than ever before. From 2020 to 2025, the VAN helped procurers mobilize and/or allocate more than $182 million in new orders for member countries.
“The VAN is assisting in fostering alignment between global and domestic accountability to achieve consensus in various areas, addressing duplication in resource allocation across different funding sources, and establishing order prioritization in response to projected stockout risks as a mitigation measure.”
VAN Member
VAN Initiative Annual Survey Response, 2025
5.8 million+
estimated unintended pregnancies averted, based on expected use of quantities of products shipped
For more information, read the 2025 VAN Scorecard Report
$34.5 Million
Products Unstuck
When stop-work orders and USAID’s closure disrupted the system in 2025, the VAN kept data and products moving, helping $34.5 million in stuck supplies reach their destination by enabling real-time tracking and leveraging partnerships for rapid coordination with countries and partners.
“In the face of USAID’s sudden withdrawal of from the FP commodity procurement and supply chain, the pressure built up in the FP supply chain ecosystem. The VAN strategically analyzed the situation, performed efficient analysis of the impact of the withdrawal, and provided guidance to the community about approaching the situation and making efficient use of the resources to prevent stock situations for critical SRH commodities, collaborating with all supply chain partners, such as manufacturers, procurers, and donors.”
VAN Member
VAN Initiative Survey, 2025
70%
of total stuck products reached their final destination (we continue to follow the remaining products)
For more information, read the 2025 VAN Scorecard Report
$5.6 Million
Canceled and Transferred Orders
Improved insight into expected shipments and country need, and continuous collaboration through the VAN Consensus Planning Group, allowed the VAN to help reduce waste by supporting procurers and governments to cancel or transfer at least $5.6 million worth of product and avert stock shortages by helping expedite 124 orders from 2020 to 2025.
“This is a good tool for monitoring and decision-making in procurement and supply chain management because it shows the product delivery stages and allows for an in-depth analysis of inventory levels at each link in the supply chain.”
Claudette Diogo
Family Planning Programme Manager, Ghana Ministry of Health
1,343
monthly log-ins to the VAN (September 2025)
68%
survey respondents agree they are able to reliably anticipate expected arrival dates of FP commodities (2025)
For more information, read the 2025 VAN Scorecard Report
Have Questions About the Tool?
Email [email protected] to learn more about the VAN and how to become a member.