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Making our vision a reality requires an extraordinary group of SRH advocates and experts.
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Sexual and reproductive health (SRH) products – like contraceptives, medicines to manage pregnancy-related complications, and supplies for safe abortion and post-abortion care – are critical to saving lives and advancing gender equality. They can dramatically improve people’s health and wellbeing by reducing unintended pregnancies, unsafe abortions, and maternal deaths.
However, persistent weaknesses in SRH markets prevent millions of women, girls and people around the world from being able to access appropriate, quality and affordable SRH products that fit preferences and lifestyles.
SRH markets are particularly complex and fragile because of inefficiencies or gaps including:
The consequences of these market challenges are startling. Today, 218 million women in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) who want to avoid or delay pregnancy are not using modern contraceptives, and approximately 810 women die every day from causes related to pregnancy, childbirth, and unsafe abortion. Additionally, from development to launch, new contraceptives currently can take up to five years longer to be introduced to LMIC markets than other global health products.
At the same time, there are opportunities to design new models to create sustainable change. Countries are assuming greater political and financial responsibility for SRH markets, while regional collaboration, local manufacturing, and local entrepreneurship are on the rise.
THE TIME IS NOW FOR A MORE PROACTIVE AND COORDINATED APPROACH WHERE GLOBAL AND COUNTRY PARTNERS ARE UNITED IN THEIR EFFORTS TO UNDERSTAND MARKET PROBLEMS, RESPOND TO LOCAL NEEDS AND IMPROVE SRH PRODUCT AVAILABILITY AND ACCESS.
Global efforts in the last decade have enabled 60 million additional women and girls to access SRH products. However, these efforts have been largely ineffective at meeting consumer needs, particularly the needs of communities in LMICs.
The aforementioned challenges spurred a multi-stakeholder Steering Committee to pursue a consultative process from 2020 to 2021 – engaging over 100 stakeholders globally – to imagine how to support healthier, more equitable, and more resilient SRH markets. Together, these country leaders, public and private implementers, civil society members, donors, and market representatives conceived of Shaping Equitable Market Access for Reproductive Health, or SEMA Reproductive Health.
SEMA was announced in July 2021 alongside the Generation Equality Forum in France and is now being incubated within Amref Health Africa. SEMA was launched with the support of country governments from Burkina Faso, Nigeria and Uganda; strategic partnership from United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office of the United Kingdom (FCDO), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and the Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition (RHSC); and initial funding from the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the French Government.
SEMA now serves as a collaborative platform and financing vehicle that seeks to work with partners across the entire SRH ecosystem. Our aim is to better coordinate donor investments, leverage existing expertise, build additional capacity and optimize limited resources in pursuit of healthier markets.
A NEW ERA FOR SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH MARKETS
SEMA’s activities will focus on aligning and strengthening market-shaping efforts by supporting and collaborating with countries and partners to:
Over the next five years, SEMA will focus on three main objectives, with the ultimate goal of supporting more women, girls, and people everywhere to control their health and futures:
Making our vision a reality requires an extraordinary group of SRH advocates and experts.