Through the Global Programme, UNFPA is providing a total of 14 million USD a year to support Reproductive Health Commodity Security programmes in Ethiopia. Moreover, 5 million USD was provided to assist the long-acting contraceptive scale-up initiative being undertaken by the Federal Ministry of Health, allocated in the form of training Health Extension Workers and producing IEC/BCC materials.

The progress review meeting was be held between delegates from what are called Stream 1 countries of the Global Programme (Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Haiti, Laos, Madagascar, Mali, Mongolia, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Niger, and Sierra Leone) and UNFPA Headquarters and the UNFPA Copenhagen office. The meeting served as a forum to share experiences and lessons learnt, challenges and identify priorities and modalities for achieving the goals and objectives of the Global Programme to enhance Reproductive Health Commodity Security, MDG Goals on maternal health, and national targets on Maternal Mortality reduction as well as increasing the family planning coverage.

UNFPA developed the Global Programme to enhance Reproductive Commodity Security (RHCS) to help countries plan for their own needs in the sphere of RHCS. The Global Programme which was put in place in 2007 is designed to act as a catalyst to the prioritization and subsequent mainstreaming of RHCS into national health policies, programmes, budgets and plans. The Global Programme is active in a total of 73 countries across the world and is working in close collaboration with the Maternal Health Thematic Fund (which includes the Midwifery Programme and Campaign to End Fistula).