Countries with limited budgets usually choose to pay for health services considered more essential, such as vaccines, rather than for reproductive health, Dr. said. Ayman Abdelmohsen, head of the family planning division of the UNFPA Technical Division, because they produce more immediate results.
But a recent push by UNFPA for low-income countries to shoulder more of the costs has led 44 governments to sign up to a new funding model that commits them to increasing their contributions to reproductive health every year.
Despite this, there was a significant global shortfall of approximately $95 million in product purchases last year. Donors currently pay for most products, but their funding for 2022 was nearly 15% lower than in 2019, as the climate crisis, war in Ukraine and other new priorities squeezed global health budgets. Program support from African governments has also remained stagnant as countries have struggled with rising food and energy prices.
The good news is that prices for new contraceptives have fallen dramatically over the past 15 years, thanks in part to the promise of massive bulk orders brokered by the Gates Foundation, which is betting big on the idea that long-acting methods will appeal to many women in sub-Saharan Africa. Hormone implants made by Bayer and Merck, for example, fell to $8.62 in 2022 from $18 each in 2010, and sales increased to 10.8 million units from 1.7 million over the same period.
