UNFPA’s leadership role in commodity security was formalized following the five-year review of the International Conference on Population and Development in 1999.

At that time, a Global Call to Action was adopted that describes what needs to be done and how the desired outputs would be achieved by various partners, under the overall coordination of UNFPA.

Based on the global call, UNFPA and its partners developed the Reproductive Health Commodity Strategy. Its purpose is “to improve the capacity of national programmes in developing countries to manage key areas of reproductive health commodities and increasingly, to provide those commodities to all who need them.”

The strategy is premised on engaging a variety of partners where each concentrates their efforts in relation to their particular comparative advantage to establish secure, efficient and reliable systems to supply and deliver reproductive health commodities. This requires:

• Global leadership by UNFPA in helping countries plan for their needs and establish a secure and steady flow of commodities.
• Advocacy to build global political commitment to supplying high-quality, affordable commodities and services.
• Building national capacity to forecast, finance, procure and deliver reliable supplies and services over the long term to all who need them.
• Improving sustainability through stable financing that ensures an adequate and reliable flow of materials.
• Coordinating among partners to simplify procedures, minimize costs and maximize efficiency, with each partner acting according to its comparative advantage.
• Improved monitoring to better track and plan for the needs in each country.
• Improved accountability to support good governance and help each partner carry out its work effectively and efficiently as part of an overall system.

Taken together, these actions form the global strategy for reproductive health commodity security that now guides the work of UNFPA and its partners.

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