MANAGING DIRECTOR OF NMSA DR. LAWRENCE SANDI CONCLUDED A THREE DAYS CONFERENCE IN COTONOU, BENIN ON FINANCING FOR FAMILY PLANNING COMMODITIES.

The Managing Director NMSA, Dr Lawrence Sandi and delegation that included the Director of Financial Resources MoHS and Program Pharmacist for Family Planning, just concluded a three days conference in Cotonou, Benin. The annual conference organized by the West African Health Organization (WAHO) and partners was titled “The Regional Workshop on Family Planning Commodity Supply Plan Financing in ECOWAS member states”.
In his presentation on behalf of the Sierra Leonean delegation, Dr Sandi highlighted the gains made by President Bio and government with increase in budgetary allocation for health, sustained improvement in health system strengthening, with increased availability of Free HealthCare commodities, the just concluded National Health Summit, and the deliberate effort and radical initiatives to reduce Maternal Mortality ratio from 717 deaths per 100,000 live births to under 300 in few years.

The event concluded with some proposals, amongst which were the inclusion of all fifteen ECOWAS member states into the Ouagadougou Partnership for procurement of Family Planning products, strong advocacy to close the gaps by partners like UNFPA, USAID, WAHO for member states who are yet to have full budgetary support from their governments to fund the procurement of contraceptives and other family planning products.
The interactive sessions were extremely beneficial as the delegation had the chance to hear from other nations their supply chain challenges and shared networking strategies to improve on health product management.