Repositioning in Action E-Bulletin
May 2007
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No Product, No Program
A Practical Guide to Improving Product Availability
USAID's DELIVER Project released Contraceptive Security: Practical Experience in Improving Global, Regional,
National, and Local Product Availability [PDF, 2.2MB], a useful tool for repositioning family planning programs. Providing both strategic overviews
of what has and what has not worked in contraceptive security (CS), the publication details what countries and stakeholders
should be doing and offers some guidance on how to plan and implement CS activities.
This work suggests that 10 areas should be addressed to both attain and maintain contraceptive security:
- Commitment of key stakeholders
- Policies to encourage public and private provision of contraceptives
- Coordination of stakeholders
- Adoption of a total market approach
- Adoption and coordination of diversified funding mechanisms
- Effective and efficient commodity management
- A well-functioning logistics system
- Equity in and access to service delivery
- Monitoring and evaluation
- Understanding contexts that influence whether clients access services
Of particular interest to repositioning family planning is the “Financial Diversification” chapter. For many years, public sector
programs have relied on one or more donors to provide their contraceptive commodities. Growing uncertainty about
future commitments combined with increasing demand means that in many countries the level of donated contraceptives
will not be sufficient to ensure that people can choose, obtain, and use the methods they need. Programs, therefore, need
to recognize this and mobilize new sources of funding to achieve CS. The table below summarizes the potential options
and sources for funding contraceptives.
POTENTIAL SOURCES OF FUNDING FOR CONTRACEPTIVES
Sources |
Description |
Donors |
Donated commodities |
Commodity donations come from bilateral agencies (USAID, KfW, and DFID) or
multilateral agencies (e.g., UNFPA). Commodities can also be donated by international
NGOs (e.g., IPPF). Recipients typically include the public and NGO sectors,
including social marketing organizations. |
International funds |
The Global Drug Facility, the GAVI Alliance, and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS,
Tuberculosis and Malaria address the global imbalance in need versus financing for
health commodities. The Global Fund, for example, solicits, manages, and disburses
funds for HIV/AIDS (including condoms),TB, and malaria programming to
recipient country programs. |
SWAp Basket Funds |
Development bank loans and grants |
The World Bank or the Inter-American,Africa, or Asian Development Banks are
typically central parts of a sector-wide approach (SWAp) basket funding
arrangement. |
Direct budgetary support |
Bilateral donors such as DFID, CIDA, SIDA, the EU, and multilateral lenders (e.g.,
the World Bank) are increasingly providing direct budgetary support to complement
SWAp basket funding arrangements. This provides MOHs with resources
to finance and procure their contraceptives. |
National Budgets |
Earmarked national budget line |
The earmarking and funding of national budget lines for contraceptives, which are
funded from domestic tax revenues, are becoming more prevalent in many countries,
reflecting successful efforts in increasing political commitment to FP. |
Local budget line |
In decentralized health management settings, local budgets managed by regional,
district, or municipal governments are an important source of potential funding
for local FP services. |
Private Funding |
Third-party private providers |
These can include health insurance funds, employer-based health care and family
planning service provision, and domestic NGOs. |
Households |
These account for out-of-pocket private expenditures in pharmacies, retail outlets,
and private NGO and public clinics. |
For more information on contraceptive security, please visit the USAID, DELIVER Project, and Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition Web sites.
Have You Seen?
With funding from the USAID Flexible Fund, CSTS+, the CORE Group, and Minnesota International Health Volunteers
(MIHV) conducted an 11-day workshop on community-based family planning programming in Kampala, Uganda. The
“Basics of Community-Based FP” was delivered over the first week (February 26 to March 3, 2007), followed by
“Program Design, Monitoring and Evaluation (PDME) of Family Planning Programs” over the second week (March 5 to
9, 2007). There were nearly 30 participants representing 19 organizations coming from programs in the following
countries: Angola, Bangladesh, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, India, Malawi, Rwanda, Sierra Leone,
Tanzania, and Uganda.
Click here for a brief report about the workshop and to view the session presentations |
We Want to Tell Your Repositioning Story
Please contact Kim Ocheltree at kocheltree@usaid.gov with your successes in family planning programming.
For more information on Repositioning Family Planning, please contact Joan Robertson at jrobertson@usaid.gov or Alexandra Todd at atodd@usaid.gov.
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