Advancing Injectable Markets for Sustainability

Led by PATH in partnership with the Africa Resource Centre, Metrics for Management, Solina Centre for International Development and Research, and Health Systems Insight, the AIMS project is dedicated to improving women’s choice and enduring access to injectable contraception. AIMS is creating a sustainable market for DMPA-SC and self-injection (SI), ensuring balanced supply and demand with robust public- and private-sector access to contraceptive injectables for women living in low- and middle-income countries.

Access to quality contraceptive information, products, and services is critical to the advancement of sexual and reproductive rights, maternal and child health, and gender equality. Subcutaneous DMPA, or DMPA-SC, is an innovative injectable contraceptive that can expand access and choice for women and adolescent girls when offered as part of a broad method mix. Because it is easy to use, requires minimal training, and can be self-injected, DMPA-SC is a simple yet transformative addition to service delivery channels in both public and private sectors and at the community level.

Building on nearly two decades of DMPA-SC research and implementation experience, a bold new initiative has launched: the Advancing Injectable Markets for Sustainability (AIMS) project.

AIMS project goals and strategic focus

Through a flexible, decentralized model that prioritizes local expertise and ensures fit-for-purpose solutions to the unique needs of each country, AIMS is working to:

Accelerate DMPA-SC market entry for low- and middle-income countries that are considering DMPA-SC introduction.
Promote private-sector engagement by facilitating generic product introduction and expanding access through commercial channels.
Support ministries of health as they integrate DMPA-SC/SI into national health systems, policies, and financing mechanisms.
Address supply chain challenges and improve forecasting and quantification to enhance global and local capacity to maintain a healthy, functional injectable supply chain.
Strengthen market stewardship through an agile, data-driven model to support progression from DMPA-SC market entry to maturity.

A new consortium for a new era

The AIMS consortium is tailored to meet current challenges: an increasingly complex injectables market, persistent end-to-end supply chain constraints, delays in advancing DMPA-SC/SI institutionalization, and uncertain avenues for ensuring access in the wake of funding cuts for global health initiatives. The AIMS team is equipped with comprehensive and forward-looking analytic capabilities, an all-inclusive approach to managing DMPA-SC supply chains from global to national levels, and tools for implementation of sustainability roadmaps as countries advance toward market maturity.

Stewarding the global injectables market

To ensure that women have a choice of methods, service delivery channels, and self-care options, AIMS will conduct global market intelligence and user preference research, produce market development strategies, lead commercialization and private-sector engagement, support global supply chain stewardship, and design sustainable and diversified financing models. These efforts will be underpinned by country-level and consolidated data and analyses in quarterly global status reports to inform governments, partners, and donors working to expand access to DMPA-SC/SI.

The project will also facilitate information sharing, alignment, and partnership with convenings and strong coordination among partners through Injectables Coordination Groups.

The AIMS consortium is excited to launch this initiative in collaboration with ministries of health and implementing partners. Together, we seek to accelerate the development of the DMPA-SC/SI market, ensuring sustainable access to injectable contraceptives while building resilient local and regional capacity for introducing new products beyond the life of the project. By expanding contraceptive options, we are enabling women to choose methods that best align with their individual needs and preferences.

Regional Resource Teams: leveraging regional expertise for local health solutions

AIMS will carry out its core functions primarily through regional hubs that are equipped with expertise in DMPA-SC product and scale-up processes; supply chain management; advocacy, stakeholder engagement, and policy development; data and markets, including the private sector; and financial sustainability planning for ministries of health. These Regional Resource Teams (RRT) will leverage a suite of mechanisms including remote technical assistance, short-term country visits, and rapid financial support to local organizations in order to unblock challenges and support ministries of health to reach DMPA-SC market maturity. RRT core functions include:

Providing expertise to help address scale-up and institutionalization challenges.
Responding to technical assistance requests.
Identifying and resolving bottlenecks.
Facilitating health management information system data capture for SI scale-up monitoring.
Tracking progress toward market maturity.
Sharing information and resources.
Coordinating and convening implementing partners and regional stakeholders, such as FP2030, the United Nations Population Fund, and the Ouagadougou Partnership.

While RRTs will proactively engage with ministries of health and stakeholders in initial priority countries, technical assistance is available to any country upon request—to learn more, please contact FPoptions@path.org.

The AIMS Fund

The AIMS Fund is an initiative to finance critical activities to advance a country along the DMPA-SC self-injection market development framework. In the interests of fostering sustainability and building capacity, the Fund will support local organizations with a grant to fill gaps that are impeding a country’s progression through the phases of market development for DMPA-SC self-injection. For more information about eligibility and the application process, visit the AIMS Fund page.