Abstract
In Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA), the challenge of sustaining access to reproductive health commodity security (RHCS) is due to poor commitment of governments to invest in affordable and accessible reproductive health commodities, especially contraceptives. Progress toward RHCS is also challenged by political, economic, and structural changes including health sector reforms. Since most of the countries in the region are middle-income countries (MICs), a very limited amount of reproductive health commodities are provided by development partners. In order to introduce sustainable financing mechanisms, such as total market approaches, and to mobilize government prioritization of funding for vulnerable populations, UNFPA EECA Regional Office (EECARO) initiated activities for “road-mapping” implementation of total market approaches (TMA) in the region.
After several consultations during 2012 and analysis of 2013 online survey findings, EECARO and PATH developed materials for regional workshops. These activities and workshops were funded by the UNFPA Global Programme to Enhance Reproductive Health Commodity Security. Overview PATH and UNFPA conducted two regional workshops on TMA in April 2013. The first, in Sarajevo from April 17 to 19, was designed to reach English-speaking countries.
Teams from eight countries participated: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, and Turkey. The second workshop, held in Kyiv from April 23 to 25, was conducted for Russian speakers from twelve countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. The Kyiv workshop was conducted with simultaneous interpretation for English and Russian.
