Government of Togo becomes first VAN country member to use own domestic resources to pay for membership subscription

RHSC is thrilled to announce that the Government of Togo became the first VAN country member to use their own domestic resources to pay for their premium membership subscription, marking a significant step towards sustainability. The VAN was designed with and for country governments, putting their needs and ownership at the center of the model. This latest milestone demonstrates just how much value country stakeholders are seeing from the cost savings and funding mobilized through collaborative VAN data use and action.

Led by the Togo Ministry of Health (MOH), this milestone was the product of many stakeholders’ coordination and advocacy. Fueled by a desire to take ownership of their country membership process, the Togo MOH took matters into their own hands to secure their premium subscription fee. Together with RHSC and the USAID Global Health Supply Chain Technical Assistance (GHSC-TA) Francophone Task Order (TO), Togo’s VAN Ambassador and other champions led advocacy efforts with key government stakeholders for inclusion of the VAN subscription fee in the government’s family planning budget.

Securing agreement among these stakeholders was only the first step, however. Through this process, RHSC and the Government of Togo developed a standardized contracting approach for country governments to pay directly for their VAN membership subscription, paving the way for other country members to follow Togo’s footsteps in the future.

After all the hard work, the Togo Ministry of health and VAN team celebrated the transfer of payment last month and the government is already trying to line-up payment for the next couple of years. Their passion and dedication to own their VAN engagement is an inspiration to all and provides excellent learning to those governments interested in following in their footsteps. 

Category: Global FP VAN