Reproductive Health Supplies Project Holds Its First Advocacy Meeting in Uganda

The project team held its first global advocacy meeting, "Linking civil society networks in knowledge and action", on April 24-25 in Kampala, Uganda. Civil society networks, project sub-grantees and partners, as well as representatives from UNFPA and other technical agencies were invited to take part in this forum. The participants of the meeting exchanged experiences from advocacy strategies undertaken at the global, regional, and national levels and discussed how to develop linkages between them, so that efforts mutually reinforce each other.

Additional goals of the meeting included: a primer on reproductive health supplies for networks that are newer to the issue; awareness building among all participants of the strong linkages between advocacy efforts at the global, regional, and national levels; and introduction of communication and coordination mechanisms for stakeholders to help them sustain linked advocacy efforts. This trip’s highlight was a site visit to the Uganda National Medical Stores—which is responsible for ensuring continuous distribution of pharmaceutical and medical products--which allowed participants to discuss specific activities to be undertaken in partnership with Ugandan government officials in order to avoid condom and other reproductive health supplies stockouts in the country in 2008.