…Sign Country Compact Agreement with UNFPA

By Sola Ogundipe

TOWARDS increasing investments in sustainable financing for family planning, Nigeria, Chad, Ethiopia, and Madagascar recently signed landmark country Compact agreements with the UNFPA.

The four new signatory countries joined the Central African Republic and Guinea, which had previously signed Compacts, to increase their countries’ domestic budget allocations for contraceptives.

The Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, who attended the conference, renewed the financial commitment on behalf of Nigeria with the backing of the Federal Executive Council.

In signing the country Compacts, with UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency, Nigeria and others committed to sharing the cost of contraceptives with UNFPA as of 2023.

In line with Nigeria’s FP2020 commitment, the federal government should contribute $4 million annually to purchase contraceptives through a Basket Fund with external donors.

However, Nigeria has not committed to this sum only since 2018, and contributions from the UNFPA and other donors account for the bulk of funds utilised to procure family planning commodities in the country.

Towards ensuring sustainable financing for family planning commodities and service provision, in Nigeria and reducing the severe donor dependency, especially in the face of dwindling foreign aid, the need to increase domestic financing is paramount.

The announcements took place at the Ministerial Roundtable on Sustainable Financing for Family Planning, hosted by UNFPA   prior to the opening of the International Conference for Family Planning, ICFP 2022, held in Pattaya City, Thailand, in November 2022.

The move is regarded as a major step towards transforming the global financing landscape for family planning.

In a statement, the UNFPA remarked, “This represents a significant shift, as countries are increasingly moving towards financing their own family planning budget needs, rather than relying on donor contributions.

“When women and girls have access to family planning, the ripple effects can transform, not only a single woman’s life but an entire society,” said Diene Keita, UNFPA’s Deputy Executive Director of Programmes. “Sustainable financing for family planning can advance progress toward universal health coverage and uplift the rights and well-being of women, girls, and communities.

For this, UNFPA’s new Strategic Plan (2022-2025) sets out a bold new vision to transform the financing landscape for sexual and reproductive health working with countries.”

The UNFPA says that the COVID-19 pandemic has diverted funding from essential family planning services and strained national health budgets, reinforcing the critical need to finance sexual and reproductive health services in times of crisis.

A WHO survey of 105 countries found that 90 per cent had health service disruptions due to the pandemic and 68 per cent reported disruptions to family planning services.

Currently, an estimated 257 million women want to avoid pregnancy but are not using safe and modern methods of contraception. From 2020-2030, the total investment needed to end the unmet need for family planning in 120 countries is estimated at $ 68.5 billion.

Donors are currently projected to provide US$ 8.6 billion of this financing between 2020 and 2030, meaning that an additional $59.9 billion is needed to end the unmet needs for family planning. Total resources need to increase from around $ 6.3 billion annually in 2020 to around $10.8 billion annually by 2030.

Over the last several decades, significant progress has been made in increasing access to and the availability of contraceptives around the world.

According to the 2022 State of World Population report, global use has increased and unmet needs have declined.

More than three-quarters of the 1.1 billion women with a desire to limit or delay childbearing are using a modern method of contraception.