The Ouagadougou Partnership (OP) was launched in 2011, forming successful partnerships across nine francophone West African countries to accelerate progress in the use of family planning services in Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Togo.

A central objective for the Ouagadougou Partnership is to double the number of modern contraceptives to 13 million by 2030.

The Ouagadougou Partnership focuses on improving coordination between donors to optimize their support across countries, as well as enhancing collaboration and cooperation at the national and regional levels to ensure family planning needs are met. The Partnership aims to support operational partners and civil society by:

• Facilitating partnership processes
• Helping countries complete planning processes
• Helping countries with their implementation plans
• Tracking progress against objectives
• Sharing information inside and outside the Partnership.

The Ouagadougou Partnership is supported by a small Coordination Unit (the OPCU) hosted by Speak Up Africa and based in Dakar, Senegal to organize events, lead activities on the ground and coordinate partners in countries and donors.

Thanks to the partners’ efforts so far, an additional 1.18 million women in Africa are using modern contraceptives since 2011. A stronger focus on women’s equality and reproductive health will be instrumental to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in Africa and through our work with the Ouagadougou Partnership, we hope to further raise awareness and advocate for this crucial issue.