OP Beyond 2020
Launched in 2011, the Ouagadougou Partnership (OP) is one of the most successful partnerships between governments, civil society and donors to accelerate the availability and use of Family Planning (FP) services in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Togo.
From 2011 to 2020, the PO doubled the number of women using modern methods of contraception in the sub-region by adding 3.8 million additional users. The Ouagadougou Partnership Coordination Unit (OPCU) was instrumental in the success of the OP. It has strengthened coordination between donors to optimize support to countries, improved exchanges between and within member countries, organized operational partners and civil society to accelerate the implementation of projects, established the mutual accountability of governments, donors and other partners to achieve results.
In the process of creating a shared vision for 2030, build on achievements to date, persistent challenges in the region and unexplored areas of intervention, the Partnership has launched the “PO Beyond 2020” initiative.
Feedback collected from the OP community during the first phase of the initiative suggests a vision, goal, operating principles and focus areas for the Partnership through 2030. The voice of all stakeholders is essential in refining and improving the emerging trends presented below.
A Francophone West Africa where easy access to quality family planning saves and improves the lives of women and youth and serves as a catalyst for sustainable development for all.
The new vision adheres to the following operating principles:
- the OP tracks ambitious goals to make family planning a priority on national and international agendas.
- the OP uses data to focus efforts on the best areas of improvement.
- the OP gives a powerful voice to young people in defining its agenda and priorities.
- the OP believes that we are stronger as a region and that regional action leads to greater progress.
- the OP recognizes that each country is unique and an important member.
The new vision responds to the following regional challenges:
- the largest generation of young people in the history needs FP services.
- the FP services offered are of poor quality and suffer from insufficient coverage.
- humanitarian crises limit access to FP.
- gender inequality hinders access to FP and restricts women’s decision-making power.
- policies and programs are insufficient to realize the demographic dividend.
- FP progress slows as existing demand is met.
Double the number of users of modern contraception to reach 13 million by 2030
Maintaining the historical trend of the OP would be an exceptional achievement. As expected, progress rates have slowed since the OP reached “easier” segments of users. However, with momentum and increased investment, OP countries can once again double the number of modern contraceptive methods users to reach 13 million by 2030. This new goal will be achieved if each country can exceed its current trend and if new strategies are identified to continue to record strong growth.
The OP intends to broaden his way of supporting its partners to deal with the changing circumstances observed in the region. In addition to the areas in which we already intervene, we will place particular emphasis on specific populations, subjects and approaches. Some of these new focus areas are listed below:
Young people
- The OP members are already tailoring their FP programs to young people: (1) OP governments are increasingly focusing on sexual and reproductive health education for young people and adapting FP services to their needs; (2) OP donors allocate funds to youth-focused programs to expand efforts to increase opportunities for them; (3) the operational partners of the OP actively seek young people for the services they offer.
- The OP will ensure the availability of better resources for young people by addressing barriers to youth participation and leadership in SRHR initiatives, supporting research in francophone West A Africa to fill the evidence gap on FP among young people and making existing studies and resources useful to the public.
- The OPCU will pursue its “youth” strategy by strengthening the participation of young people in OP events, and promoting SRAJ policies. OPCU will recruit young people to its team, develop a joint vision with other movements and consult donors on youth issues.
- The OP will collaborate with other partners and coordinate political advocacy for the adoption of key legislative arrangements in favor of youth such as the retention of young girls in school, the policy of self-care for young people or the fight against child marriage.
Social Norms
The OP will support countries’ efforts to change social norms. The OP will work closely with religious leaders, youth and other social leaders to:
- Support ministers in their process of revising social norms.
- Serve as accelerators for Social and Behavior Change. The OP will support CSC-focused programs and projects, provide resources, training, and prioritize funding for CSC research and implementation with government involvement.
- Monitor indicators for measuring provider behavior and service quality
- Disseminate their messages through PO platforms, including speaking at OP and other events.
Priorities shared in the region
The OP will also highlight other priorities shared by countries in the region. The partnership:
- Create a formal framework for participants to identify topics for discussion ahead of the OP Annual Meetings and plan sessions accordingly.
- Help meet FP needs in unfavorable political contexts and crisis situations by including humanitarian experts in the development of CIPs and by establishing new partnerships with humanitarian organizations and strengthening existing ones.
- Fill the important gaps in FP knowledge and research on youth attitudes in francophone West Africa. To this end, the OP will launch a research fund for countries, NGOs and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs).
- Create opportunities and build regional capacity for FP research following the model established by the French government and USAID.
Personalized support for each country
The OP will adapt its support to the context of each country and plans to:
- Bring new tools and support to countries with the biggest needs.
- Help integrate FP services into national health programs.
- Provide, if necessary, technical support to countries at the national level.
- Highlight the best opportunities in each country in the form of easy-to-assimilate “synthetic PANBs”.
- Improve collaboration with CSOs to achieve the targeted results.