No Matter What Comes: Key Recommendations to Ensure Continuous Access to Family Planning Across Shocks and Stressors in Ouagadougou Partnership Countries
PublishedThe Ouagadougou Partnership (OP) is a partnership of nine countries in Francophone West Africa, alongside donors and technical partners, dedicated to accelerating access to and investments in family planning (FP). The OP was founded in 2011, in response to high rates of maternal and child mortality and low contraceptive prevalence rates across Francophone West Africa. Over the course of 10 years (2011-2021), the OP reached 4,077,000 additional contraceptive users and averted 18,848,000 unwanted pregnancies, 6,697,500 unsafe abortions, and 63,740 maternal deaths. However, the OP region is facing multiple, intersecting, and increasing humanitarian crises, including conflict, insecurity, flooding, and drought, all of which are fueled or amplified by the climate crisis. Across Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, and Togo, 17 million people will need humanitarian assistance in 2024, of whom 4.25 million are girls and women of reproductive age.
To support the OP efforts to address FP in humanitarian settings, the Women’s Refugee Commission conducted a literature review on FP services in crises in OP countries, and partnered with the Ouagadougou Partnership Coordination Unit (OPCU) to engage OP stakeholders in developing recommendations to ensure continuity of FP services across shocks and stressors. These briefs and reports highlight key research findings and recommendations for diverse stakeholders that are invested in family planning in the OP region.
