A health worker in Senegal counsels a client on her family planning options.Photo courtesy of Clement Tardif for IntraHealth International.
In 2011, nine francophone West African countries formed the Ouagadougou Partnership to change the story of family planning in the region. Thanks to their efforts, an additional 1.18 million women are using modern contraceptives today. The partnership seeks to reach at least 2.2 million additional family planning users by 2020.
The Ouagadougou Partnership includes the country governments of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, and Togo; donors including the US Agency for International Development, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Agency for Development, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation; key partners such as the West African Health Organization, UNFPA, World Health Organization, and FP2020; and civil society and private sector representatives.
Based in Dakar, Senegal, the Ouagadougou Partnership Coordination Unit was managed by IntraHealth International during 2011-2021 and primarily funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In 2021, IntraHealth transferred leadership of the coordination unit to Dakar-based Speak Up Africa.
The coordination unit was designed to:
- Facilitate partnership processes
- Help countries complete planning processes
- Help countries with their implementation plans
- Track progress against objectives
- Share information inside and outside the partnership.
