Attaining Sustainable Financing for Family Planning in Sub-Saharan Africa

With limited domestic funding, a scale back by external donors, and ambitious health and health coverage targets, there is an urgent need to develop sustainable financing plans for primary healthcare, including family planning, in low- and middle-income countries. This need is particularly acute in sub-Saharan Africa, where high fertility rates are coupled with a pronounced unmet need for family planning.

To address this issue, stakeholders from USAID in-country offices, government health and finance departments, and key technical partners and donors came together in January 2018 to:

• Share successes and challenges in achieving sustainable financing for family planning
• Discuss cutting-edge practices and tools to increase domestic resource mobilization, strengthen private-sector engagement, and increase efficiency of family planning resources
• Tailor advocacy approaches to initiate and/or sustain alternative financing approaches for family planning

Read our news story for a summary of what HP+ shared at the meeting, see our roadmap of the agenda below, download presentations, and check out joint coverage of the #Financing4FP meeting on Twitter.

Publications

Presentations from Attaining Sustainable Financing for Family Planning in Sub-Saharan Africa

Roadmap

Attaining Sustainable Financing for Family Planning in Sub-Saharan Africa 

The USAID-sponsored Attaining Sustainable Financing for Family Planning in Sub-Saharan Africa regional meeting was conducted over five days with 14 technical sessions and site visits. The meeting was supported by a range of USAID projects and implementing partners including Health Policy Plus (HP+), Health Finance and Governance project (HFG), Policy, Advocacy, and Communication Enhanced for Population and Reproductive Health (PACE),  Sustaining Health Outcomes through the Private Sector (SHOPS) Plus, and Support for International Family Planning and Health Organizations 2 (SIFPO2) program, Marie Stopes International (SIFPO2/MSI), and Population Services International with Results for Development (SIFPO2/PSI). A roadmap of the meeting's agenda, with links to HP+ presentations and select others, is highlighted below. For more about HP+'s role at the meeting, read our accompanying news story. 

Key Themes

• Predictable and increased domestic government funding for family planning, especially to drive increased sustainability in the context of a transition in external financing in middle-income countries. Governments should allocate and spend more for family planning, especially in priority countries.  

• Private-sector engagement for family planning-related resource mobilization for service delivery, commodities, and demand creation. Issues include how market segmentation can improve private-sector engagement and targeting of resources, how to engage and reimburse private providers for family planning service delivery, expanding access to affordable commodity procurement for private-sector retailers, and raising private investment into family planning.   

• Increased efficiency in family planning service delivery driven by improved purchasing mechanisms for services from public and private providers, capitalizing on task shifting and integration opportunities within and outside the health sector, and reducing waste and misallocation for scarce public resources. How can funding be spent more equitably and efficiently?

Day 1: Setting the Stage: Developing Mutual Understanding of the Family Planning Financing Challenge

• Session 1: Making the Case for Sustainable Investment in Family Planning
• Session 2: Health Financing Basics
  • HP+: The S-Curve and Health Financing Maturity Levels
  • HP+: Introduction to the Family Planning Financing Roadmap
  • HFG: Overview of Health Financing (pdf 1,911 kb auto-download)
• Session 3: What Will it Cost? Determining and Using Family Planning Resource Need Estimates
  • HP+: Costed Implementation Plans (CIPs) for Family Planning: A Background
  • HP+: Madagascar Costed Implementation Plan: Experiences
• Session 4: Visualizing and Messaging Data to Make the Case for Investing in Sustainable Financing for Family Planning

Day 2: Domestic Resource Mobilization for Family Planning

• Session 5: Planning for and Succeeding with Family Planning Funding Transition
  • HP+: Guatemala's Family Planning Transition: Successes, Challenges, and Lessons Learned for Transitioning Countries
  • SIFPO2/PSI: From donor to domestic: Transitions for Family Planning (pdf 506 kb)
• Session 6: Towards Greater Domestic Government Investment for Family Planning
  • HFG: Towards Greater Domestic Government Investment for Family Planning (pdf 1,711 kb auto-download)
• Session 7: Budget Advocacy for Family Planning Financing
• Session 8: Purchasing Family Planning
  • HP+: Purchasing Family Planning Services
  • SIFPO2/PSI: Strategic Purchasing for Family Planning: The Basics ( 867.83 kb)

Day 3: Site Visits

Day 4: Strengthening Private-Sector Engagement in Family Planning Services, Supplies, and Financing

• Session 9: Engaging the Private Sector in Family Planning Financing
  • SHOPS Plus: Engaging the Private Sector in Family Planning Financing (pdf 2,073 kb)
• Session 10: Using Total Market Approach Data to Mobilize and Use Resources Efficiently for Family Planning
  • HP+: Know Your Market to Grow Your Market
• Session 11: Improving Affordability and Quality of Family Planning Services and Supplies in the Private Sector
  • SIFPO2/PSI & SIFPO2/MSI: Improving Affordability and Quality of FP Services and Supplies in the Private Sector ( 936.08 kb)
• Session 12: Assuring Access to High-Quality Services in the Private Sector under Health Financing Programs: Lessons from the Field
  • SHOPS Plus: Assuring Access to Quality Services in the Private Sector Under Health Financing Programs - Lessons from the Field (pdf 798 kb)

Day 5: Improving Efficiency in Resource Utilization for Family Planning and Developing Actionable Country Plans for Sustainable Family Planning Financing

• Session 13: Improving the Allocation Process and Budget Execution for Family Planning
  • SIFPO2/PSI: Improving Allocative Efficiency and Budget Execution for Family Planning (1,229.25 kb)
• Session 14: Task Shifting/Sharing: What are the Efficiency Gains?
  • SIFPO2/MSI: Task Shifting / Sharing: What are the Efficiency Gains? The case of Nigeria ( 870.11 kb)