HP+ West Africa Joins the OP Donors' Caravan
HP+ West Africa's regional director, Modibo Maïga, and deputy director Brahima Bassane joined a high-level delegation of Ouagadougou Partnership donors in Burkina Faso last week to highlight USAID's and the project's pivotal role in developing and supporting the implementation of that country's costed implementation plan.
Each year, donors travel across francophone West Africa to visit select Ouagadougou Partnership countries. Known as the "OP Donors' Caravan," delegates visit with government, civil society, implementing partner, and youth representatives to discuss how they can better align their contributions to combat maternal mortality and promote family planning. This year the caravan made stops in Niger, Burkina Faso, and Benin—countries where HP+ has been working to support the expansion of family planning. Primarily, this work has come in the form of developing costed implementation plans—multi-year roadmaps designed to help governments achieve their family planning goals by prioritizing interventions, forecasting costs, mobilizing resources, and engaging stakeholders around a common strategy.
As the caravan winds down this week, we wrap-up our coverage of the OP Donors' Caravan and reflect on the necessity and difficulty of shifting social norms to reduce fertility, improve health, and spur economic growth.
