Every year, 70,000 women die from excessive bleeding after childbirth (post-partum haemorrhage or PPH), with the majority of deaths occurring in low- and lower-middle income countries. The majority of PPH deaths could be avoided through preventative approaches, however, this is not always the reality for those living in humanitarian crisis settings, for example conflict regions, natural disasters, public health emergencies.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Ferring Pharmaceuticals share a collective goal in working towards achieving zero preventable maternal deaths. Making motherhood safer is a human rights imperative. This is only possible by ensuring that every woman has access to quality care and treatment during pregnancy and childbirth, no matter where she lives. It is in this context that UNFPA is collaborating with Ferring Pharmaceuticals to contribute to the body of evidence regarding the safe introduction of additional resources such as heat stable carbetocin for the prevention of excessive bleeding after birth (post-partum hemorrhage)in low resource humanitarian contexts such as Uganda and South Sudan. Through this, both organisations aim to contribute to providing access to safe birth in the most vulnerable settings. This collaboration is also part of Ferring’s commitment at the 25th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD25) held in November 2019.

World Health Organization has found the use of good quality prophylactic uterotonics can prevent the majority of PPH associated complications during the third stage of labour. Heat-stable carbetocin does not require refrigeration to be stored or transported, which can be life-saving in regions with high temperatures or where there may be unpredictable power sources.

In addition to the drugs oxytocin and misoprostol, heat-stable carbetocin is recommended for the prevention of PPH for all births in contexts where its cost is comparable to other effective uterotonics. The World Health Organization (WHO) updated the PPH prevention recommendations to include carbetocin in 2018 and added the heat-stable formulation of carbetocin to the Essential Medicines List of uterotonics in 2019.

South Sudan

Ten years after independence, South Sudan still endures staggering levels of violence across several regions of the country. According to a UNHCR, nearly 1.6 million persons are internally displaced and some 345,000 returnees, who have spontaneously returned to South Sudan, are affected by the violence and search for safe harbors. The maternal mortality ratio for South Sudan in 2017 was 1,150 deaths out of every 100,000 live births. The project areas include six health facilities that cater for the most part to the internally displaced population. Together these facilities report close to 600 births per month.

Uganda

Regional conflicts have driven people from more than eight countries to seek refuge and asylum in Uganda’s North and Northwest Regions. A UNHCR report documented that Uganda was host to over 1.4 million refugees and asylum seekers in January 2021. According to a Knoema statistic, the maternal mortality ratio in Uganda in 2017 was 375 deaths out of every 100,000 live births. For Uganda, six locations are proposed in and around the main refugee camps in the areas of Bidibidi and Mvepi, covering both the refugee and national population. Together, these health facilities report 235 births per month.

The growing global partnership between UNFPA and Special Olympics was formalized by the signing of an agreement during the Nairobi Summit in November 2019. The partnership represents a shared commitment to empower youth with intellectual disabilities, especially girls and women, to access greater social protections and health services.

The partnership focuses on developing thought leadership, inclusive programmes and communication advocacy with an emphasis on positive youth development, gender equality and women’s empowerment and family engagement for inclusive health.

UNFPA and Special Olympics are collaborating in different regions of the world to implement joint initiatives. For example, in partnership with the Shakhtar Football Club, the “Come On, Play!” project teaches football skills to young girls with intellectual disabilities in four Ukrainian cities, and the sport is used as a platform for inclusion and building self-esteem. "We, like these girls, are full of positive energy after the training," said Danylo Sikan, a participating football player.

The current focus of the global health sector on the COVID-19 response poses a risk that investments in safe birth programmes will decline.

In this context, the UNFPA and Reckitt partnership represents a unique opportunity to ensure continued strategic global engagement and investments in safe birth programmes by bringing together the distinctive skills, resources and reach of leading international actors.

The project is “Safe Birth for All,” for women and girls in Mexico, the Philippines, and Thailand to have safe births, access family planning services and prevent adolescent pregnancies.

With a focus on vulnerable communities, the project has multiple dimensions tackling both short-term and long-term objectives. It used, implemented and created digital platforms to expand the reach of comprehensive sexuality education for youth and adolescents. In parallel, the partnership worked to strengthen maternal health care services by assuring effective service deliveries. To do so, the project enhanced the provision of maternal and newborn health services and access to family planning within communities and selected health facilities, provided supplies and training to midwives and health personnel and distributed reproductive health kits to pregnant women.

Bayer’s long-term commitment to family planning is reinforced in accordance with the Programme of Action of the Nairobi summit (ICPD25). The company has been supporting family-planning programs with a broad range of hormonal contraception methods for many years, including oral contraceptives, monthly and thrice-monthly injections and implants ¹. Low- and low-middle-income countries have seen increasing demand for contraception, particularly long-acting, reversible contraceptives (LARCs), including implants

By providing immediate solutions to solve urgent problems as well as long-term structural proficiency, Bayer strengthens UNFPA’s humanitarian response.

Bayer’s expertise and innovation within supply chains and medical logistics help support UNFPA’s country offices in overcoming bottlenecks related to COVID-19 and improving logistics measures to maintain the quality of pharmaceutical supplies. 

The partnership also focuses on supplies provided in the Interagency Emergency Reproductive Health (IARH) kits as well as on improving the clinical practices of service providers.

The company’s medical logistics and know-how will help UNFPA to strengthen its supply chain management and the use of pharmaceuticals during humanitarian crises in a sustainable manner.

Bayer has recently committed$1 million $500,000 and products worth $3.8 million to the UNFPA Supplies Partnership, which seeks to secure the essential contraceptive supplies and maternal health medicines required by millions of women and adolescent girls over the next decade. Bayer’s contribution will help prevent almost 215,000 unintended pregnancies, 5,000 maternal and child deaths, and over 58,000 unsafe abortions in Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, the Republic of the Congo, Somalia, Yemen, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

¹By 2030, we are committed to providing 100 million women in low- and middle-income countries with access to modern contraception. Bayer AG. 13 October 2021. Available at: https://www.bayer.com/en/pharma/empowering-women-globally Last accessed: November 2021.

²Harrison, M.S., Goldenberg, R.L. Immediate postpartum use of long-acting reversible contraceptives in low- and middle-income countries. matern health, neonatol and perinatol 3, 24 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40748-017-0063-z