Effective supply chain management is essential to the delivery of quality voluntary family planning services. But despite robust supply chain management systems in Uganda, the USAID Uganda Family Planning Activity (USAID/FPA) baseline assessment revealed inefficiencies hindering the country’s procurement planning processes and contributing to contraceptive stockouts. Challenges included systemic gaps in district family planning commodity stock management practices; inconsistent quality of health facility- and community-level family planning stock data reported through District Health Information Software 2 (DHIS2); and limited capacity of health workers to analyze and use data to plan and make decisions.
To address these gaps, USAID/FPA worked with district-level stakeholders to strengthen supply chain management; enhance capacity in web-based ordering at selected health facilities; and monitor family planning commodity stocking and use. USAID/FPA data suggest that over time, planning for contraceptive commodities grew more realistic, stockouts of most methods decreased, and the number of family planning users increased. This brief provides an overview of the key strategies and activities that contributed to these promising results and offers data and programmatic insights for governments, donors, partners, and other SCM stakeholders to
consider as they work to strengthen commodity security in their own contexts.
Pathfinder implemented USAID/FPA (2020–2025) in partnership with the Uganda Protestant Medical Bureau, Samasha Medical Foundation, and Uganda Youth and Adolescents Health Forum to address underlying social, cultural, and structural barriers to contraceptive access, particularly among young people, first-time parents, and low-parity women in 11 districts across Uganda.
