Where is the financial support for reproductive health supplies?

Read the Countdown 2015 Europe publication “Funding for Reproductive Health Supplies: An Analysis of Official Development Assistance from European Donors.”

This report analyses data from the EU institutions and seven European national governments – Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the UK – related to funding for SRHR, and for RHS specifically. It creates a baseline for monitoring progress in increasing the level of funding and donor transparency and accountability with regard to RHS funding.

According to the data, the European Commission and the seven countries analysed are performing better than most with regard to SRHR funding globally. Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK are strong performers when it comes to SRHR funding, while others, such as France, are improving, and Germany has provided strong support for family planning supplies (e.g. condoms and contraception). However, it is extremely difficult to identify funding support specifically for RHS, because funding streams in these countries and organizations are complex, highly varied and often confusing. None of the countries or organizations have a budget line devoted specifically to RHS, and each has different budget lines which could potentially cover SRHR and/or RHS (e.g. budget lines such as ‘health’ and ‘HIV/AIDS’). A lack of transparency on how the money is spent makes it very difficult to identify RHS funding.

Hence, Countdown 2015 Europe urges European donors to be more transparent and publish what they fund, so that monitoring of RHS funding can lead to aid better spent. The recent trend of European donors opting for increased general and sector budget support adds to the complexity in tracking funds for RHS. Countdown 2015 Europe calls on European donors to develop enhanced relationships with governments to ensure that national plans include robust SRH indicators, ensure that RHS budget lines are implemented and conduct annual reviews to indicate expenditure against these goals.

The report is now available on the Countdown 2015 Europe website: www.countdown2015europe.org