In an effort to improve access to quality essential Reproductive Health (RH) medicines and medical devices, WHO, UNFPA and partners in the Reproductive Health Supply Coalition (RHSC) are engaged in a series of activities aimed at promoting harmonized global standards and technical assistance. These include developing guidance on sourcing good quality suppliers and products, building procurement capacity in resource-limited countries, and removing barriers to the appropriate use of these products.

A well-functioning supply chain capable of selecting, forecasting, quantifying, financing, procuring, and delivering the medicines and related medical devices and consumables needed is a critical element in all efforts to improve the health and well-being of mothers and children in developing countries. Delivering goods alone is not sufficient to ensure better outcomes for those who benefit from RH programmes. RH Commodity Security (RHCS) is essential to meeting the target of universal access to reproductive health by 2015, as called for by the International Conference on Population and Development and the Millennium Development Goals.

The purpose of this mission was to present a “snapshot” of the current status of access to medicines for Maternal and Newborn Health Care and Reproductive Health, which are not routinely monitored. The findings of this mission are intended to supplement the findings of other on-going studies and studies planned for the very near future. The six critical RH medicines chosen for the study were Oxytocin injection, Ergometrine injection, Magnesium Sulphate injection and three antibiotics, Ampicillin injection, Gentamicin injection and Metronidazole injection. These medicines were chosen because they are the WHO recommended medicines for the prevention and management of three major causes of Maternal Mortality:

• Haemorrhage (Oxytocin, Ergometrine injections)

• Eclampsia, pre-eclampsia (Magnesium Sulphate injection)

• Maternal/Neonatal Sepsis (Ampicillin, Gentamicin and Metronidazole injections)