Abstract
Partners in Population and Development (Partners) is an inter-governmental alliance of 19 developing countries which are: Bangladesh, Benin, China, Egypt, The Gambia, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Kenya, Mali, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Senegal, Thailand, Tunisia, Uganda, Yemen and Zimbabwe.
Partners has endeavoured to support and encourage its member governments in achieving one of its goals to “Expand and improve South-South collaboration in the fields of Family Planning and Reproductive Health”. As such, it has looked at how member governments could help each other in expanding the use of affordable products for reproductive health that are manufactured by industry in their countries. This was the theme of the Forum held in Kochi, India in 2001, which produced an Agenda for Action.
The following Partners Annual Board Meeting held in Jakarta, Indonesia in October 2003 declared that “We pledge commitment to work on the Kochi Agenda for Action by: Establishing mechanisms for sharing affordable commodities through SouthSouth networks; ……”; and in the next meeting in Wuhan, China in September 2004, agreed to “Commit ourselves to use best practices and share resources including reproductive health commodities, among developing countries for effective reproductive health policies, programmes and services aimed at improving the quality of life of women, men and children.”
Partners is also a member of the international Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition. The Coalition comprises representatives of organizations and constituencies that have a significant financial and/or programmatic stake in RH supply security. It provides a forum for sharing information and works to resolve supply problems and ensure long-term RH supply using new and existing resources and expertise.
