Ouagadougou Partnership Coordination Unit

Family Planning Overview Brief

rgoodwin — Thu, 25 Apr 2024 13:49:03 +0000

Family Planning Overview Brief 2024 rgoodwin April 25, 2024 Download

Countries Global

Projects INSPiRE The Challenge Initiative Next Gen Regional Health Integration to Enhance Services in Eastern Uganda (RHITES-East)Ouagadougou Partnership Coordination Unit Scale-Up and Capacity Building in Behavioral Science to Improve the Uptake of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Services (SupCap)Civil Society for Family Planning MOMENTUM Safe Surgery in Family Planning and Obstetrics Ingobyi

Topics Family Planning & Reproductive Health

Publisher IntraHealth International

Marie Ba to Lead Ouagadougou Partnership Coordination Unit

mnathe — Fri, 24 Apr 2020 12:57:55 +0000

Marie Ba to Lead Ouagadougou Partnership Coordination Unit mnathe April 24, 2020 April 24, 2020

Marie Ba is the new director of the Ouagadougou Partnership Coordination Unit.

The Ouagadougou Partnership is a coalition of nine francophone West African countries—Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, and Togo—that are working together to expand family planning in the region.

“She is the right leader to guide the coordination unit through 2020 and beyond.”

Ba has been a member of the coordination unit for more than three years, starting as the regional program manager for advocacy and external relations and then moving into the deputy director role last year. Over the past year, she has served as interim director as well as deputy director and has successfully led the team during this transition.

“I am delighted to announce Marie Ba’s appointment,” says Polly Dunford, president and CEO of IntraHealth International, which serves as the coordination unit of the Ouagadougou Partnership. “She is the right leader to guide the coordination unit of the Ouagadougou Partnership through 2020 and beyond.”

Ba has a master’s degree in international development and peace/conflict resolution from the American University, Washington DC, as well as a bachelor’s degree in economics and social sciences from the University of Maryland-College Park. Her extensive experience in the West and Central Africa regions spans the last twelve years and includes building partnerships and managing health programs, program planning and implementation (including communications and advocacy), financial management, and oversight of grants and contracts.

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Benin Burkina Faso Côte d’Ivoire Guinea Mali Mauritania Niger Senegal Togo Family Planning & Reproductive Health Leadership and Governance AdvocacyMarie Ba has been a member of the coordination unit for more than three years, starting as the regional program manager for advocacy and external relations and then moving into the deputy director role last year. Photo courtesy of the Ouagadougou Partnership.Ouagadougou Partnership Coordination Unit

The Ouagadougou Partnership: An Improbable Success in a Troubled Region

kseaton — Thu, 19 Mar 2020 15:54:56 +0000

The Ouagadougou Partnership: An Improbable Success in a Troubled Region kseaton March 19, 2020

March 19, 2020

The Ouagadougou Partnership in francophone West Africa advances access to family planning for health and development.

Sometimes innovation to spur social change arises in unexpected places. At a time of increased extremism and insecurity in West Africa, the remarkable story of a partnership to advance women’s health and empowerment through family planning is worthy of global attention. By tackling such challenges, the partnership provides hope for women, girls, and their communities in a troubled region, with lessons for other parts of the world.

The Ouagadougou Partnership achieved a level of success that was unimaginable at its outset almost a decade ago.

The story began in 2011, in Ouagadougou, the capital of landlocked Burkina Faso, when representatives from nine francophone West African countries joined with international donors to launch a simple but radical plan. The idea was to expand access to contraception in a region that was dramatically lagging behind the rest of the continent in maternal and child health. What became known as the Ouagadougou Partnership achieved a level of success that was unimaginable at its outset almost a decade ago, when even discussing family planning in such conservative societies was still perceived to be taboo. Even more important for future prospects, the partnership has evolved into a dynamic and influential regional platform involving governments, donors, civil society, and implementing partners, with a special emphasis on engaging young people.

The Ouagadougou Partnership by the numbers: the global impact of the partnership since its 2011 launch. GRAPH from Ouagadougou Partnership/Adapted by J.Bardi/CFR

By focusing on the impact of family planning—often communicated as birth spacing—as a driver of other health and development outcomes, this partnership has generated new momentum and exposed new challenges for regional collaboration and donor engagement. Pape Gaye, president emeritus of IntraHealth International, one of the partners, is a native of Senegal. In our interview, he said he sees this as a central theme for African development: “It’s time for us to start not only touting the value and health benefits of family planning, but also what it’s going to do in terms of development.”

An Ambitious Goal, Exceeded

The nine francophone countries of the sub-region (Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, and Togo) united around an ambitious regional goal—to reach one million additional, voluntary users of modern family planning methods by 2015, and 2.2 million more by 2020. The results have been impressive, especially given the low starting point of approximately 2.7 million users in 2011. By 2020, more than 3.8 million additional, voluntary users have begun family planning. Francophone West Africa has one of the fastest increases in modern contraceptive rates among developing regions, and family planning funding from the core donors has more than doubled.

Francophone West Africa had one of the fastest increases in contraceptive use in developing regions.

The story of this partnership reflects a unique historical convergence: a group of bilateral and philanthropic donors willing to commit to the sub-region, country-level champions from government and civil society, supported by implementing partners, all prepared to advance family planning for health and development reasons, and a shared interest in doing business differently to address egregious gaps in women’s health and the stalled indicators on family planning. This enabled the francophone West African countries to outpace family planning progress in other developing countries, with a fraction of the resources. It is notable that while spending for family planning in the Ouagadougou Partnership countries remains low compared with other regions in the world, voluntary users of modern contraception has risen faster as a percentage than in any other region in the world.

Helping youth directly address their leaders: Mariam Abou Gado, Ouagadougou Partnership Youth Ambassador in Niger, meets with President Issoufou of Niger to discuss recommendations on family planning. PHOTO courtesy of EtriLabs/Yves Tamomo

Inspiration for Creating the Partnership

The Ouagadougou Partnership was launched at a time when the health landscape in francophone West Africa was alarming, accounting for some of the world’s highest maternal, infant, and under-five mortality rates, and reflecting a considerable discrepancy with countries in anglophone Africa. Underlying these data were some of the world’s lowest family planning indicators and highest fertility rates, resulting in some of the world’s fastest growing populations, with Niger alone projected to nearly triple in population by 2050.

When President Barack Obama took office in January 2009, those working on family planning in the U.S. government saw an opportunity to elevate areas of global health that had not been prioritized under President George W. Bush's administration—notably family planning. After much deliberation, USAID decided to join with the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the French government to hold a conference in Ouagadougou in February 2011, hosted by the government of Burkina Faso. Some 250 representatives from country delegations, donors, implementing partners, and civil society participated, and the Ouagadougou Partnership was born.

The Ouagadougou Partnership created high level dialogue among elected officials. Here the former ministers of health for Guinea and Burkina Faso meet with former minister of social affairs for Guinea. PHOTO courtesy of EtriLabs/Yves Tamomo

Implementing the Vision and the Way Forward

Several elements have been key to the Ouagadougou Partnership’s success. The first was the development of Costed Implementation Plans, which are multi-year actionable strategies developed by governments to achieve specific family planning goals. These plans provided roadmaps with credible budgets and helped achieve better alignment of resources. The Ouagadougou Partnership also organizes an annual meeting, designed to both reward progress toward reaching the Partnership’s goals and to nudge those lagging behind. A network of national champions from the governments has been essential to driving the partnership forward. And the Ouagadougou Partnership provided space for civil society to engage on family planning and to hold their governments accountable, including religious leaders, a critical element to build support for family planning, and elevating the voices of young people.

The efforts to advance family planning in francophone West Africa face many uphill battles. Rising extremism and terrorism in the Sahel present grave threats to the countries in the region, and is leading some governments to divert resources from the health sector to the military. A central challenge is how to sustain and reinvent the Partnership going forward, and how to keep all the partners engaged, while linking family planning with broader women’s and girls’ empowerment.

Use of modern contraceptives has increased dramatically in Ouagadougou Partnership countries. GRAPH from Ouagadougou Partnership/Adapted by J.Bardi/CFR

The Ouagadougou Partnership is at an inflection point, poised to expand family planning activities and to focus efforts on young people post-2020, while also confronting rising challenges.

This can’t be routine—it’s a daily fight to try to find solutions for women and to listen to them.

The movement is strong and growing, with committed countries and new donors joining the original group, including Canada, the Netherlands, an anonymous donor, and most recently the UK’s Department for International Development, and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation. Despite the many challenges ahead, the Ouagadougou Partnership has proven a powerful concept—that by joining together, a group of relatively small and marginalized countries with many barriers to expanding family planning can elevate attention and drive social change. With adaptation and tailoring, the lessons and success factors for this partnership hold promise for other regions of the world. Awa Coll Seck, former minister of health in Senegal, told us in an interview in Dakar: “The best counsel I can give is that this can’t be routine—it’s a daily fight to try to find solutions for women and to listen to them. You have to be convinced of what you do, have all the necessary information, and fight daily to make it happen.”

This article was originally published on Think Global Health on March 18, 2020.

The Ouagadougou Partnership donors meet with President Issoufou of Niger in 2019 after having met the Prime Minister and half of the Niger cabinet as well as the President of the National Assembly. PHOTO courtesy of EtriLabs/Yves Tamomo

By Marie Ba

Director, Ouagadougou Partnership Coordination Unit

By Janet Fleischman

Independent Consultant

Ouagadougou Partnership Coordination Unit Family Planning & Reproductive Health Community Health Policy & Advocacy Youth Engagement Africa Burkina Faso Côte d’Ivoire Guinea Mali Mauritania Niger Senegal Togo

Ouagadougou Partnership Donors' caravan stop at Ecole des Jeunes Filles in Niamey, Niger during a session on "Complete Sexual Education." PHOTO courtesy of EtriLabs/Yves Tamomo

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Young Advocates, Political Will Drive Progress on Family Planning in Francophone West Africa

mnathe — Thu, 05 Dec 2019 20:06:04 +0000

Young Advocates, Political Will Drive Progress on Family Planning in Francophone West Africa mnathe December 05, 2019 December 05, 2019

Countries throughout francophone West Africa are celebrating progress in family planning this week at the Ouagadougou Partnership (OP) annual meeting in Cotonou, Benin, where the theme is We Demand More: Youth and Social Behavior Change.

In 2015, the nine OP countries—Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, and Togo—exceeded their initial goal of reaching one million additional individuals with modern contraception and then committed to reaching 2.2 million additional users by the end of 2020. So far, OP leaders announced Tuesday, the countries have achieved 87% of this goal.

In the past year alone, OP countries have added 450,000 users of modern contraception, surpassing their projected figure of 443,000. They estimate that this has prevented 162,000 unwanted pregnancies, 58,000 unsafe abortions, and 560 maternal deaths. The countries have achieved these results in part through social and behavior change approaches that have increased demand for family planning services in the region.

"We are finally seeing sustained momentum in this region."

The OP countries have among the highest maternal, neonatal, and child mortality rates in the world. They also have some of the highest fertility rates. Niger tops the list with an average of seven children per woman.

But since the partnership began in 2011, the OP countries have reached 3.4 million additional women and girls with modern contraception. Key factors in their success this year, leaders said this week, include high levels of political engagement, a dynamic civil society, a growing network of champions, and greater donor interest and investment in the francophone West Africa region.

IntraHealth International, which hosts the Ouagadougou Partnership Coordination Unit, is working throughout the region to boost access to family planning and connect more young people—especially women and girls—to health services that can lead to longer, healthier lives.

"We are finally seeing sustained momentum in this region,” says Pape Gaye, IntraHealth’s president and CEO. “And it’s not just due to one approach or one influx of resources. We’re partnering with multiple donors, young people, community leaders, health workers, government agencies, schools, the private sector—frankly, whoever we can—to help the OP countries maximize returns on family planning investments and develop holistic approaches to make faster, sustained progress in the region.”

Local leadership, local resources

IntraHealth works with mayors and local officials in ten cities—home to 11.7 million people, including 3.1 million women of reproductive age—throughout francophone West Africa through the Challenge Initiative (TCI). These local leaders have committed to boosting family planning and reproductive health services for their populations, including increasing demand for these services, notably among young people—and they’re investing community resources to make it happen.

By the end of its third year, TCI Francophone West Africa Hub had mobilized $423,095 in local contributions.

Also read: President of UCOZ, Benin, Says His Community is Benefitting from the TCI Platform

By the end of its third year (June 2019), TCI Francophone West Africa Hub had mobilized $423,095 in local contributions (both cash and in-kind) and provided messaging to increase awareness of and use of family planning services to 484,000 women of reproductive age. In the past year, 345,000 women have benefited from family planning services in TCI-supported municipalities in Burkina Faso, Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, and Niger. The result: 59,417 new contraceptive users.

Also read: In Six Francophone West African Cities, Mayors Are Serious about Investing in Family Planning

Sex ed & youth advocacy

We’re working to reduce bias in health care, make services friendlier to young people, and get comprehensive information about reproductive health to young people who need it.

We do this in part by developing civil society coalitions—including with local youth ambassadors, religious leaders, women’s groups, and more—through our Strengthening Civil Society Engagement for Family Planning (CS4FP) project. For example, we’re integrating comprehensive sexual education into the high school curricula in Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mauritania, and Niger through a participatory approach, ensuring religious leaders, parents, and students themselves are driving the process.

Community health workers we’ve trained have visited 8,717 young clients in their homes this year.

And because so many of our young colleagues are demanding more comprehensive information and solid advice, they’re not stopping there. A few examples:

In Mali, the coalition’s targeted advocacy messages—including those of youth ambassadors—have helped lead to a new presidential decree establishing free access to family planning services in 2019.
The Niger coalition’s advocacy during a donor group visit in 2019 helped lead to the newly created Family Planning Directorate in Niger, an important step in making funding for family planning a priority in the country. (Also read: Niger Faces Five Key Family Planning Challenges)
In Mauritania, the coalition successfully advocated to include comprehensive sexual education in the national costed implementation plan to reach more youth and adolescents with family planning and reproductive health information.
This summer in Côte d'Ivoire, CS4FP youth ambassadors organized a summer camp in Miandzin, where more than 200 young people ages 15–24 gathered to talk about comprehensive sex ed, reproductive health, and using social media to spread the word.

Also read: This Nigerien Med Student Has a Plan to Tackle Family Planning Taboo

Health worker training for youth-friendly services

This year we’ve trained 60 master trainers and 211 health workers to provide youth-friendly services in Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mauritania, and Niger through CS4FP.

And through our work with TCI, we’ve trained 213 health workers in 137 facilities to provide youth-friendlier services. Community health workers we’ve trained have visited 8,717 adolescents and young people in their homes to provide family planning counseling and referrals.

Now, through INSPiRE, we work in all nine OP countries to help integrate postpartum family planning with nutrition and maternal, neonatal, and child health services. We’ve worked with health facilities in three flagship countries that have become models of excellence for integrating these services. These will serve as training sites for other countries.

INSPiRE has also identified and is working with a local organization, INSP (National Institute of Public Health) in Burkina Faso, to build a foundation for the future of locally driven knowledge-sharing, advocacy, and technical assistance in the region. INSP will serve as a regional hub through the life of the project and beyond.

Also read: New Study Explores Solutions to Postabortion Care Barriers for Young People in Togo

IntraHealth International hosts the Ouagadougou Partnership Coordination Unit, primarily funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Challenge Initiative and INSPiRE are funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. CS4FP is funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Dutch Embassy.

Benin Burkina Faso Côte d’Ivoire Guinea Mali Mauritania Niger Senegal Togo Family Planning & Reproductive Health Community Health Leadership and Governance Policy & Advocacy Youth EngagementYoung newlyweds in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, which is one of the nine countries that make up the Ouagadougou Partnership. Photo by Trevor Snapp for IntraHealth International.Ouagadougou Partnership Coordination Unit

Niger Faces Five Key Family Planning Challenges

cbishopp — Wed, 10 Jul 2019 13:41:57 +0000

Niger Faces Five Key Family Planning Challenges cbishopp July 10, 2019

July 10, 2019

Here’s how the country could overcome them by 2020.

The Ouagadougou Partnership is nearing the end of its 2015-2020 acceleration phase. This alliance of nine West African countries set an ambitious goal to reach 2.2 million new women and girls with modern contraceptives during those five years. So far, they’ve reached over 1.8 million.

Their success now hinges on maintaining the momentum they’ve built in the region, and in bolstering those countries where progress has been slow, including Niger.

As of mid-2018, Niger had reached about 77% of its objective (182,000 new users of modern contraceptives by 2020). But among the partnership countries, its rate of increase in modern contraceptive prevalence is among the slowest.

When I visited this vast West African country during the Ouagadougou Partnership donor caravan in April, I saw a vibrant youth movement. There was also stronger political engagement than we witnessed during the last caravan visit in 2017.

One of the partnership’s strategies is to encourage learning and exchange opportunities—and healthy competition—among the nine countries. And it’s increasing engagement at the highest levels. In Niger, key ministers and the President himself are getting involved and could help Niger meet its ambitious objectives. But first, the country must overcome five key family planning challenges.

1. Service integration

Health service integration, or the practice of intentionally linking multiple health services, makes the best use of resources and increases access to critical care for women and girls. But despite integration’s strong evidence base and its designation as a promising high impact practice, we heard from country officials and implementers that integration is not effective at a national scale in Niger.

A young mother who comes to a health facility for immunizations or nutrition counseling for her child may not have the time or opportunity to make a second visit for family planning. Physical, economic, and sociocultural barriers threaten Nigerien women’s and girls’ access to family planning services, so every opportunity to meet their needs must be treated as critical.

Niger needs health systems and policies that recognize the often-limited opportunities women and girls have to seek health services. The country could capitalize on the intrinsic link between healthy mothers and healthy babies by integrating these health services.

INSPiRE, led by IntraHealth International, is introducing a novel integration model and integration indicators in Niger, Cote d’Ivoire, and Burkina Faso to better track and understand the impact of this approach. A regional integration hub will also provide technical assistance and advice to governments, local organizations, and implementing partners across the nine Ouagadougou Partnership countries.

2. Domestic funding

Niger’s decision-makers at the highest level—including the President, First Lady, Prime Minister, and Minister of Health—made time to meet with the members of the donor caravan. This clear political will and engagement will be critical on Niger’s challenging road ahead.

Historically, a budget line for family planning commodities has existed in the national budget, but only a small percentage of these critical resources are made available to the health workers who need them to stock their facilities.

In response, the Ouagadougou Partnership Coordination Unit (OPCU) is working to increase national-level coordination, particularly by engaging multisectoral, nontraditional health actors—such as ministries of finance, planning, and education—in family planning. And IntraHealth’s Civil Society for Family Planning platform is working with local coalitions of civil society organizations to monitor countries’ progress toward family planning objectives and advocate for the funding to achieve them.

3. Trained health workers

Most health workers in Niger are contract employees, and most are concentrated in the capital city of Niamey. Many do not receive regular and comprehensive training and supervision in family planning.The government and implementing partners must work together to ensure training and capacity-building programs cover the country uniformly and address health workers at all levels. Through city-led projects, the Challenge Initiative is working to do this by scaling up high-impact family planning interventions by engaging facility-based and community health workers in cities.

President Issoufou with members of the Ouagadougou Partnership donor caravan. Photo by EtriLabs.

4. Contraceptive supply chain

Even if health workers are equipped with the knowledge and skills they need to care for the Nigerien population, they can’t provide critical family planning services if their shelves are empty of contraceptives.

During the caravan visit, we heard from government and donor stakeholders about the logistical and resource-related challenges Niger faces in tracking and distributing contraceptives to the last mile. Lack of a fully functioning commodity-tracking system has resulted in a surplus of family planning commodities in urban areas—where only a fifth of the population lives—but a high stock-out rate at the community level.

To meet this challenge, Niger must mobilize domestic resources while seeking new sources of support to rebuild and modernize its supply chain. In Senegal, the Informed Push Model helped to reduce stock-out levels to below 2%, and could see similar success if implemented in Niger.

5. The security situation

Niger shares its borders with politically unstable neighbors, including Burkina Faso and Mali. Over the past decade, the trickle of terrorism and violence across these borders has grown, and as a result, so has the Nigerien national defense budget.

As security concerns and political instability become the norm, these factors must not overshadow the critical role family planning plays in ensuring Niger’s stability and development. Over time, increasing its population’s access to family planning services will enable Niger to reap the benefits of healthier women and girls, greater gender equality, and the economic growth that comes with the demographic dividend.

In Niger’s capital and across the Ouagadougou Partnership countries, the Challenge Initiative is working with mayors and local officials to build a culture of local engagement and investment in family planning as a means to economic growth and stability.

In the countdown to the end of the partnership’s acceleration phase, all eyes will be on these nine countries, particularly those whose targets remain unmet. Niger faces a challenging road ahead but benefits from strong and committed leaders who understand the critical role family planning plays in their country’s development.

In the year ahead, Niger and its partners must align their interventions, resources, and priorities to mitigate these five challenges and increase the population’s access to family planning services. The futures of millions of Nigeriens are on the line.

IntraHealth International hosts the Ouagadougou Partnership Coordination Unit, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. IntraHealth also leads the Challenge Initiative in West Africa, which is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Strengthening Civil Society for Family Planning in West Africa Project, which is funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Dutch Embassy, and the INSPiRE initiative, which is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

By Molly Rosett

Former program manager, IntraHealth International

Ouagadougou Partnership Coordination Unit Family Planning & Reproductive Health Family Planning World Contraception Day Niger

President Mahamadou Issoufou shakes hands with Mariama Abdou Gado, president of the Niger youth ambassador network. Photo by EtriLabs.

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Fatimata Sy on Partnering to Expand Access to Contraceptives

cbishopp — Thu, 17 Jan 2019 15:12:01 +0000

Fatimata Sy on Partnering to Expand Access to Contraceptives cbishopp January 17, 2019

January 17, 2019

Fatimata Sy talks to The Optimist about her work, the future of family planning, and her own audacious personal goal.

When it launched in 2011, the Ouagadougou Partnership set an audacious goal for 2020: Increase the number of women using modern contraceptives by at least 2.2 million in nine francophone West African countries.

Historically, not many women in the region used contraceptives because of socio-cultural factors and infrastructure challenges. But members of the Partnership were determined to prove that with the right approach, family planning could be a crucial investment for the future of Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, and Togo.

They were right. In 2017, the Partnership reported that 100,000 unintended pregnancies and 400 maternal deaths had been avoided as 400,000 women started using modern contraceptives for the first time. Steering the Partnership with three decades of experience is Fatimata Sy, director of the Coordination Unit for the Ouagadougou Partnership. Her deep expertise has brought together governments, donors, and civil society organizations towards a common vision for family planning, which she says in “six years has achieved more progress than in the last 20” in the region. The Senegal-based powerhouse says early successes came from members starting to view “family planning beyond a health initiative [and] as an input for economic growth.”

What keeps her going are the human stories, the lives transformed by the Partnership’s work.

But it is Sy’s nuanced understanding of the challenges—social norms, early child marriage, and gender roles—that has ultimately propelled its success. Now, as Sy prepares to retire from the Partnership and announce her successor at the 7th Annual Meeting,* she talks to The Optimist about her work, the future of family planning, and her own audacious personal goal.

Reflections on the partnership

Talking about family planning is challenging in most parts of the world, but Sy says a combination of religious factors, social and gender norms, and taboos makes it especially difficult in West Africa. What keeps her going are the human stories, the lives transformed by the Partnership’s work. Sy recounts the story of Amy Colle, a woman from Mauritania who was in her teens when an arranged marriage made her the second wife of an older man. Colle used contraceptives to delay her first pregnancy, despite taunts from her family-in-law that she was infertile.

“Planning her first child helped [Colle] to graduate, have a job, and even normalize the relationship with her husband and family-in-law,” says Sy. “She understood that to get the respect of her husband, the respect of the family, she had to be independent economically. And being independent economically is tied to the fact that she could control her pregnancies,” she adds.

And it’s not just individuals and families who benefit. Burkina Faso has seen incredible success. “If you speak to people from Burkina Faso, they will tell you, ‘if we don’t invest in family planning, [we can] forget about economic growth.’” Engaging champions from the region who can communicate the intrinsic value of family planning will be key to future successes, she adds, helping to spur progress in countries that “need more attention, like Mauritania and Mali.”

Like any collaboration that brings together diverse stakeholders and countries, which each have unique challenges, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. In Niger, for example, Sy explains that 76 percent of women are still married before the age of 18. “This is the country where a 30-year-old woman can be a grandmother. People need to think about that.”

The future of the family planning sector

Sy is understandably proud of the Partnership's achievements. But she’s equally candid about the challenges. “The lack of access to information, access to services, access to products – for many countries, around 30 percent of women eligible for family planning do not have access to it because of social norms, or the lack of services. And maybe they don't even know that there are services that exist,” she says.

There are also financial challenges. Even countries that prioritize family planning don’t always make investments on a national scale, and most of the countries are also heavily dependent on international aid for family planning. So, even if just one agency steps aside or closes, often the entire program cannot continue, Sy points out.

Sy says that greater investments need to be made in demand creation for modern contraceptives. “When we analyze the resources from donors, most are going to service delivery, technical assistance, and the procurement of supplies. But not for demand creation, because it's difficult. When you are creating demand, you have to disrupt the social norms.” One way to increase demand is engaging youth. Sy spearheaded a number of youth-led programs as part of the Ougadougou Partnership, but her vision is to have young people “in the driver’s seat,” of new programs, campaigns, and services. “We have youth ambassadors, but my aspiration is to build a critical mass of youth who can put our work into practice,” she says.

Watch this space: Sy’s next act

So, what’s next for Sy? “I will continue being a voice, an activist to help girls to access education.” She witnessed the power of education in her own life and career successes, which influenced her passion for ending early child marriage, and the fight for girls’ and women’s economic empowerment.

Sy has another ambitious goal – to help create a foundation in the West Africa region supported by the African private sector. Her expertise in building partnerships should come in handy. “Many [African private] organizations have a philanthropy branch, but I’ve been wondering, how could we create a foundation of African donors, maybe even matching it to what the Gates Foundation is doing,” she mused.

Engaging the African private sector to put financial resources into areas like family planning, and matching it with work done by international donors, will help shift the disproportionate regional dependency on international aid, she says. “Making a program like that a reality is my dream...but my fight will always be around empowering girls,” she says.

This post was originally published by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

IntraHealth International hosts the Ouagadougou Partnership Coordination Unit primarily funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

* Recruitment for the next director of the Ouagadougou Partnership Coordination Unit is ongoing.

By Ruchika Tulshyan

Contributor, The Optimist

Ouagadougou Partnership Coordination Unit Family Planning & Reproductive Health Family Planning

Photo courtesy of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

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Ouagadougou Partnership Countries on Track to Meet 2020 Family Planning Goals

cbishopp — Wed, 19 Dec 2018 18:42:45 +0000

Ouagadougou Partnership Countries on Track to Meet 2020 Family Planning Goals cbishopp December 19, 2018 December 19, 2018

At the 7^th annual meeting of the Ouagadougou Partnership last week, about 350 delegates from more than a dozen countries came together to celebrate the partnership’s successes and progress toward its goals, including reaching 2.2 million more people in nine francophone West African countries with modern family planning methods by 2020.

The Ouagadougou Partnership is a coalition of government officials, religious leaders, civil society members, and youth representatives from nine countries—Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, and Togo—working in collaboration with donors to improve family planning outcomes in the region.

Despite the region’s specific challenges—including low contraceptive prevalence rates, sociocultural barriers, weak health systems and political commitment, and limited funding—these countries are making progress. In 2018, the Ouagadougou Partnership countries reached 448,000 new users of modern contraception across the nine countries. (Based on the partnership’s projections, they needed to reach 443,000 new users this year to be on track to meet their 2020 goal.) Collectively in 2018, these countries prevented 159,000 unwanted pregnancies, 56,000 unsafe abortions, and 510 maternal deaths.

Collectively in 2018, these countries prevented 159,000 unwanted pregnancies, 56,000 unsafe abortions, and 510 maternal deaths.

Among the highest-performing countries in the partnership this year were Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, and Senegal, all of which surpassed their objectives for 2018.

Officials at the annual meeting attribute the partnership’s successes this year to:

political will and increased funding for family planning in their countries
scale-up of high-impact practices (HIPs)
new family planning initiatives in the region, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation-funded INSPiRE and The Challenge Initiative

As the annual meeting began, Women in Global Health announced their list of 200+ Francophone Women Leaders in Global Health, which includes:

Fatimata Sy, director of the Ouagadougou Partnership Coordination Unit
Sorofing Traoré, family planning youth ambassador from Mali and president of the West Africa regional youth ambassador network
Nina Koné, vice president of the Burkina Faso family planning youth ambassador network

Since the launch of the Ouagadougou Partnership in 2011, the nine countries have collectively avoided over 2 million unwanted pregnancies, 6,810 maternal deaths, and 727,000 unsafe abortions.

The partnership uses a model of advocating at multiple levels as a consortium to strengthen the policy and legislative frameworks in its member countries, strengthen financial mechanisms and align donor funding in the region, and challenge the socio-cultural deterrents which limit women’s reproductive rights. The members also share best practices, track progress, and boost collaboration and cooperation among governments, implementing partners, and the private sector at the national and regional levels.

IntraHealth International hosts the Ouagadougou Partnership Coordination Unit primarily funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Learn more:

Guttmacher Institute’s December 2018 Fact Sheet: Adding It Up: Investing in Contraception and Maternal and Newborn Health in the Ouagadougou Partnership Countries

Ouagadougou Partnership Annual Meeting website

Family Planning & Reproductive HealthPhoto by Jonathan Torgovnik/Getty.Ouagadougou Partnership Coordination Unit

These 5 Levels of Advocacy Are Moving the Needle on Contraceptive Use

mnathe — Tue, 25 Sep 2018 13:59:44 +0000

These 5 Levels of Advocacy Are Moving the Needle on Contraceptive Use mnathe September 25, 2018

September 25, 2018

In the struggle to end poverty, new ideas and powerful new voices are rising up, demanding change. And it's working.

Imagine: It’s 1981. Ronald Reagan is president of the United States. Scientists still believe AIDS is a rare lung infection. And over 42% of the world’s population lives in extreme poverty.

Forty-two percent. That number always stops us in our tracks. It’s massive, and uncomfortably close to half.

Even more mind-blowing is how that number has plummeted in just a few decades. Today it stands at 10%. And we’re poised to reach 0% by 2030, if we achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Two key factors behind all this progress—and in any success to come—are:

Advocacy and coordination—just look at all the progress countries made working toward the Millennium Development Goals.
The humble contraceptive.

Poverty rates are highest among children—particularly girls.

FP2020 reports that in a single year, access to contraceptives helped prevent 26 million unsafe abortions, 84 million unintended pregnancies, and the pregnancy-related deaths of 125,000 women. That’s one reason advocates like Ellen Starbird, the US Agency for International Development’s director of population and reproductive health, call family planning a critical link in achieving the SDGs.

Poverty rates are highest among children—particularly girls—and the bulk of the 10% of people still living in poverty are in Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. These are regions that have huge populations of young people and are still struggling to improve maternal and child health, expand access to family planning, and keep girls in school. And as they struggle, new ideas and powerful voices are rising up, demanding change.

Francophone West Africa is a prime example. The region has become a rallying point for progress in health and development—in part because there’s so much progress to be made there. Many of these countries remain at the bottom of the human development index. But also because its countries, cities, and communities are coming together and inventing new ways to make contraceptives available to more of the people who need them.

And they’re doing more than the essential work of stocking clinics and training frontline health workers. They’re changing behaviors, attitudes, biases, minds—slippery concepts in comparison to the data-driven realm of supply chains and health financing.

The region is harnessing the power of advocacy from five different levels to do it, including:

Advocacy from young people.

Throughout West Africa, hundreds of youth ambassadors are serving as family planning advocates—talking with school kids and newlyweds, and making sure policy-makers take their needs and views into account.

The youth ambassador program has been around for over five years now, long enough for some of those ambassadors to enter the workforce and advocate at new, higher levels, like Innocent Ibrahim is doing in Niger. The former youth ambassador is now using what he learned during the program to help revolutionize sex education for middle- and high-school students, who’ve been demanding it ever since religious backlash caused the government to pull it from the curriculum.

Advocacy from the community.

Never underestimate the power of friends and neighbors to change their communities. In Kayes, Mali, for example, a group of 60 women and girls—spanning generations of mothers and daughters—are united in a cause: to help Mali’s women and children. Nieta, as the group is called, is working to end child marriage, eliminate female genital mutilation, and promote sex education and family planning.

They travel around Kayes and the surrounding region talking to groups, educating communities, and urging pregnant women to get prenatal care and deliver their babies in health facilities.

(And, you might be pleased to know, they’re suffering through the same awkward parent-teen conversations about sex that many of us have endured at one point or another—the conversations are a good thing.)

Advocacy from local governments.

In the last 18 months, mayors and local officials from six cities in four countries have begun reproductive health initiatives using their own resources and the guidance and funding of the Challenge Initiative, or TCI (led by the Bill & Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health). The IntraHealth-led TCI Accelerator Hub in West Africa has led to a new cost-effective strategy of systematic referrals, which is helping participating cities respond to unmet need for family planning.

Advocacy from powerful regional consortia.

The Ouagadougou Partnership is a coalition of nine countries in francophone West Africa that’s working to give 2.2 million more people in the region access to family planning by 2020. Together they’re improving coordination among donors to optimize their support and boosting collaboration and cooperation at the national and regional levels. And they’re making progress, despite the region’s specific challenges—low contraceptive prevalence rates, sociocultural barriers, weak health systems and political commitment, and limited funding.

Advocacy from funders and global partnerships.

The Ouagadougou Partnership, FP2020, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Frontline Health Workers Coalition—these are just some of the big players who are working to end poverty by expanding access to contraceptives and reproductive health services and bolstering the frontline health workers who can provide them.

And it’s working, all of it. The needle is moving. The investments West Africa and other regions are making now will yield a lifetime of returns.

IntraHealth International hosts the Ouagadougou Partnership Coordination Unit primarily funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The IntraHealth-led CS4FP Plus initiative, which runs the family planning youth ambassador program, is funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Dutch Embassy. The Challenge Initiative is led by the Bill & Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health in the Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

By The Editorial Team

IntraHealth International

Ouagadougou Partnership Coordination Unit Family Planning & Reproductive Health Community Health Leadership and Governance Policy & Advocacy World Contraception Day Poverty Youth Engagement

A member of the women's advocacy group Nieta in western Mali speaks out against early marriage, female genital mutilation, and obstetric fistula, and about the need for family planning in her country. Photo by Nana Kofi Acquah for IntraHealth International.

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New Project to Improve Health and Nutrition in Nine West African Francophone Countries

mnathe — Wed, 14 Feb 2018 18:18:14 +0000

New Project to Improve Health and Nutrition in Nine West African Francophone Countries mnathe February 14, 2018 February 14, 2018

IntraHealth International will implement a new regional project to improve nutrition and reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health (RMNCH) in the nine Ouagadougou Partnership countries of West Africa, thanks to a three-year, $7 million award from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Francophone West Africa has among the highest maternal, neonatal, and child mortality rates in the world. The World Health Organization estimates that more than 303,000 women died in 2015 due to complications of pregnancy or childbirth, more than one-third of them in West and Central Africa. The global maternal mortality rate is 216/100,000 live births, while the maternal mortality rate in the nine Ouagadougou Partnership countries—Benin, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, Togo, Burkina Faso, Cote D’Ivoire, and Niger—ranges from 315 (Senegal) to 679 (Guinea).

One out of every 41 women will die of maternal causes in these countries, compared to 1 in 4,900 in developed nations.

The new Francophone West Africa (OP) Regional Hub for RMNCH Continuum Delivery of Post-Partum Family Planning, Nutrition and Essential Newborn Package (now called INSPiRE) proposes to support integration of these programs initially in three out of the nine Ouagadougou Partnership countries (Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, and Niger) with subsequent support to all nine.

Together, IntraHealth and our partners will work with the nine Ouagadougou Partnership countries to:

achieve their national goals to increase modern contraceptive prevalence rates by 2020
stop preventable maternal and child deaths
improve maternal nutrition and feeding practices for infants and young children
ensure the health, nutrition, and well-being of mothers, newborns, and infants

Using lessons learned from the successes and challenges the Ouagadougou Partnership countries experienced as they built their costed implementation plans for family planning, INSPiRE will work with the nine member countries to:

develop country-owned, evidence-based costed action plans for ensuring deliberate, effective integration of high-impact interventions
hold governments and stakeholders accountable for their commitments
document and help share successes across the region
leverage existing platforms in the region to align resources and improve efficiencies
advocate and mobilize resources for integrated post-pregnancy family planning, nutrition, and essential newborn care services

Our consortium includes Helen Keller International, PATH, and the Institute for Research in Health Sciences. Together we will leverage our existing organizational capacity and longstanding relationships with ministries and local and regional institutions to maximize the resources that will ensure the success and long-term sustainability of this program.

The Ouagadougou Partnership aims to address unmet need for family planning in the region by helping at least 2.2 million additional women use modern contraceptive methods between 2016 and 2020. (The partnership surpassed its original goal of reaching 1 million additional women between 2011 and 2015.) About 25% of married women ages 15–49 in the region would like to space or limit births, but are not using modern contraceptive methods, mainly because access to family planning services is limited.

IntraHealth manages the Ouagadougou Partnership Coordination Unit, which is based in Dakar, Senegal, and is primarily funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Benin Burkina Faso Guinea Mali Mauritania Niger Senegal Togo Family Planning & Reproductive Health Maternal, Newborn, & Child Health Nutrition Ouagadougou Partnership Coordination Unit INSPiRE

383,000 Women in Francophone West Africa Started Using Modern Contraception in 2017

intrahealth — Wed, 31 Jan 2018 19:07:01 +0000

383,000 Women in Francophone West Africa Started Using Modern Contraception in 2017 intrahealth January 31, 2018 January 31, 2018

In 2017, the nine countries of the Ouagadougou Partnership together prevented 100,000 unintended pregnancies, 32,000 unsafe abortions, and 400 maternal deaths in francophone West Africa by bringing modern contraceptives to over 383,000 new users. In two years, the partnership has reached 41% of its goal of an additional 2.2 million women in the region using contraceptives by 2020.

Burkina Faso and Cote d’Ivoire are leading the way, reporting last month at the partnership’s annual meeting in Conakry, Guinea, that they added 73,000 and 88,000 women respectively in 2017, surpassing their expected contributions.

West Africa has suffered historically from persistently low contraceptive prevalence rates, largely due to socio-cultural barriers, weak health systems, limited political will, and a lack of resources.

The Ouagadougou Partnership formed in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, in February 2011 among the governments of nine francophone West African countries, their technical partners, and donors to accelerate the use of family planning services in the region. The countries include Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, and Togo.

We are all driven by the same ideals and aspirations, those of: reducing maternal mortality, promoting the development of women and girls, guaranteeing the success of our youth, and contributing to the economic emergence of our countries.

And many countries are making big gains.

The modern contraceptive prevalence rate (mCPR) among married women in Burkina Faso has risen from 17.5% in 2012 to 27.3% in 2017. In Cote d’Ivoire, it’s increased from 13.1% to 20.9%, and in Togo from 16.8% to 25.9%.

But the region still as has far to go. The United Nations estimates the region’s mCPR among married women is 20% compared to 43% in East Africa and 63% worldwide.

“We are confident that we will get there,” says Fatimata Sy, director of the Ouagadougou Partnership Coordination Unit. “We are all driven by the same ideals and aspirations, those of: reducing maternal mortality, promoting the development of women and girls, guaranteeing the success of our youth, and contributing to the economic emergence of our countries.”

The partnership is designed to improve coordination among donors and partners, optimize resources, and provide more opportunities for countries to learn from each other’s efforts. In 2015, the partnership surpassed its initial goal of reaching one million additional women with modern contraceptives and announced its current, ambitious goal for 2020.

IntraHealth International hosts the Ouagadougou Partnership Coordination Unit (OPCU) in Dakar, Senegal. The OPCU is jointly funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Key donor members of the Ouagadougou Partnership include Agence Française de Développement (AFD), French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, US Agency for International Development (USAID), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Dutch Ministry of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, and Canadian International Development Agency.

Benin Burkina Faso Ghana Mali Mauritania Niger Senegal Togo Family Planning & Reproductive Health Policy & AdvocacyA client receives a contraceptive implant in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Photo by Trevor Snapp for IntraHealth International.Ouagadougou Partnership Coordination Unit