The USAID | DELIVER PROJECT has traditionally worked with public-sector logistics systems and transitional countries to strengthen commodity security. Ensuring that clients have access to needed family planning and health commodities has increasingly meant working with the private sector, whether it be social marketing, commercial, or private not-for-profit. In many countries, this has involved helping policymakers understand the role and contribution of the private sector in meeting client demand and the role of the public sector in regulating and overseeing the total market for health products and services.
Private-sector work has required working with privatized central medical stores, manufacturers, social marketing organizations, and private clinical service providers. It also entails exploring third party logistics (3PLs) options; for example, the government’s use of private warehouses or private transport fleets to manage and distribute health products. Bangladesh is a excellent example of this type of public/private partnership where the Minister of Public Health (MOPH) contracts out the transport of contraceptives and other health products to a private company In addition, working with the private sector includes understanding what private households are willing and able to pay for commodities.
Currently, the USAID | DELIVER PROJECT is reviewing experience with the inclusion of the private sector in Strategic Pathway to Reproductive Health Commodity Security (SPARHCS) assessments and strategic planning to seek ways to strengthen these efforts.
NGO Sector Initiatives In countries where USAID has phased out or is phasing out the provision of contraceptives, such as the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region, other sectors have become increasingly important partners in ensuring commodity security for countries that are taking on the responsibility of financing and procuring contraceptives. In 2006, the project completed an analysis of the legal and regulatory framework in nine focus countries—Brazil, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Bolivia, and the Dominican Republic—that may affect future procurement of contraceptive commodities, as well as the current policy environments of five USAID-graduated countries that are procuring without assistance.
Individual qualitative assessments for contraceptive procurement practices were also completed in the LAC region. The assessments include reviews of public policy and published documents; databases of pricing information; and interviews with key informants from the public, nongovernmental organizations (NGO), and commercial sectors. The information will be used to assist in preparing a procurement strategy for USAID-presence countries and help countries identify efficient, economical, and timely distribution of high-quality contraceptives as they prepare for the eventual phaseout from USAID donations.
In many countries, social security systems are an essential part of family planning services and products.In 2007 the project completed a paper that analyzes, through a series of case studies, the incorporation of family planning in social security institutions in five countries in the Latin American and Caribbean region – Guatemala , El Salvador , Nicaragua , Mexico , and Paraguay.The paper documented experiences, processes, and mechanisms that social security institutions in LAC have implemented to formalize and provide family planning services in their benefit package and to place contraceptives on their essential drug list.The document analyzes the social security system in each country and the strategies used to finance family planning, increase coverage, and improve sustainability of family planning.The paper was distributed to USAID/Washington, LAC missions, and other donors and contractors in the region and will be used to strengthen the focus, approach, policy development, and implementation of family planning coverage in social security institutions in other countries in the region.
For more information about the contraceptive procurement options papers, download or view the following DELIVER publication (in Adobe Portable Document Format):
