Ensure access to health supplies, governments urged

Governments in developing countries should ensure access to reproductive health supplies and strengthen policies to facilitate access to such supplies, a statement from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) said on Thursday. The recommendations were made by an expert meeting held in Cote d'Ivoire's capital, Abidjan, from 10- 13 June. Noting that reliable access to contraceptives and other commodities was a fundamental requirement for reproductive health, the experts pointed out that millions of women and men in developing countries went without these essentials. The situation left them vulnerable to unwanted pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections including HIV/AIDS, and the risk of childbirth without basic medical supplies, the experts said. The experts said that the need for reproductive health products was rising but donor support was declining. During the 1990s, governments and individuals provided 60 percent of contraceptive costs worldwide, while donors covered 40 percent. "Donor support has since declined to around 27 percent of the total," they noted. "In this situation it is urgent to take measures to help developing countries' reproductive health programmes become self-sustaining and to help them ensure that the reproductive health supply and distribution chain work efficiently," they said. The regional workshop on Reproductive Health Commodity Security (RHCS) was organised by UNFPA as part of its support for countries' efforts to increase access to these products, UNFPA said. The workshop's objective was to translate UNFPA's global RHCS strategy into national action plans. It brought together staff from 25 UNFPA country offices in francophone Africa, their international counterparts, global reproductive health experts, donor and NGO representatives and the fund's regional technical support team in Dakar, Senegal.