The UNFPA Supplies partnership is our flagship family planning programme. Every year, it serves over 20 million women and girls around the world, of which 8.5 million are in East and Southern Africa. We partner with companies, benefactors, NGOs, civil society organizations and governments to deliver a choice of modern contraceptives and life-saving maternal health medicines to 50 of the world’s lowest-income countries. Fifteen of these are in the East and Southern Africa region.
Despite improvements, more than 218 million women worldwide still have an unmet need for family planning and contraception. In East and Southern Africa, where one in five women (4.9 million) struggle to access safe and reliable family planning, the need is greatest among rural, uneducated, poor and marginalized girls and women.
UNFPA and its partners are working to remove substantial barriers to accessing family planning information and services, as part of a strategy that includes addressing restrictive policies, cultural norms, lack of user-friendly services and a scarcity of trained peer providers.
