The private sector holds great potential to reduce unmet need for family planning, and many countries are poised to adopt a total market approach for increasing contraceptive access through private pharmacies and drug shops. Policies supporting scale-up of family planning service provision and expanding method options such as DMPA-SC self-injection, must be prioritized in these entities.

The PATH-JSI DMPA-SC Access Collaborative and partners have gained valuable insights with relevance to private sector engagement on self-injection. This webinar held February 15, 2022 highlighted lessons learnt, challenges, recommendations, and considerations for policies supporting private sector engagement in self-injection in different country contexts. Specific topics included:

• Financing and commodity production ecosystems
• Procurement and supply chains
• Service delivery and programming
• Data reporting and monitoring
• Advocacy
• Demand generation

The discussion was moderated by Allen Namagembe, Deputy Project Director, Uganda DMPA-SC Access Collaborative, PATH.

Panelists:

• Dr. Kayode Afolabi, Director and Head, Reproductive Health Division, Federal Ministry of Health, Nigeria
• Dr. Daniella Munene, Member, National Executive Committee, Pharmaceutical Society of Kenya
• Dr. Hortense Randrianaivo, President, Association of Pharmacists of Madagascar
• Mr. Célestin Compaore, Regional Project Director, DMPA-SC, Jhpiego, Burkina Faso

Over the past two years, a number of implementing partners have leveraged the Catalytic Opportunity Fund (COF) to support the scale-up of DMPA-SC in focal countries. The COF is a rapid funding mechanism administered by Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) and managed by the DMPA-SC Operations Group, a group that responds to operational and service delivery issues in DMPA-SC and self-injection introduction and scale-up. The fund aims to support short-term DMPA-SC scale-up activities that unlock or generate additional resources. COF grantees carry out a diverse range of activities with short-term, small grants that make significant contributions to the national introduction and scale-up of DMPA-SC in their countries.

During this DMPA-SC Learning and Action Network (LAN) knowledge-sharing webinar held on May 19, 2021, successful COF grantees representing the Society for Family Health, Pathfinder International, Marie Stopes, and Jhpiego shared about the fund’s impact on their work and key lessons learned. The virtual discussion encouraged all stakeholders—program implementers, researchers, government officials, health providers, and members of civil society—to consider applicable strategies and mechanisms for efficient, sustainable, and scalable product introduction.

For more information, please contact the Access Collaborative LAN at dmpa-sc-lan@path.org or the CHAI COF at COF@clintonhealthaccess.org.