Enabling Family Planning in Humanitarian Settings

Bayer works with partners that have strong presence and solid experience in humanitarian settings to address the challenges of providing access to family planning. We are committed to working with partners to identify concrete ways to reach those who find themselves in most challenging, crisis-ridden parts of the world. At the intersection of family planning and humanitarian response we aim to provide Bayer’s technical, logistical and medical expertise to support our parters by helping them strengthen supply chains, overcome bottlenecks and address the information need for family planning and sexual and reproductive health (source).

Meeting humanitarian need is a task that no community, aid organization, company, government, or research institute can manage alone. Strong partnerships between diverse players are essential to make a difference. Therefore, the German Red Cross (GRC) and Bayer have joined forces to provide family planning activities in humanitarian crisis. The partnership has brought forward a Family Planning Module for the GRC to deliver family planning in its humanitarian response to emergencies and protracted crisis. Anyone seeking health services for themselves or their children in a crisis, can decide to receive counselling on how to actively manage their own family planning. Hence, the Family Planning Module includes a variety of counselling, education and advocacy materials, trainings and a broad selection of family planning methods such as oral contraceptives and contraceptive implants.

In Latin America, armed conflict and environmental crises like droughts, floods, glacier melt, heatwaves, hurricanes, and mudslides have driven thousands to flee their homes. As of the latest data, 2.5 million Venezuelans now live in Colombia. In collaboration with the Colombian Red Cross, the Family Planning Module was piloted across various departments in Colombia to provide women with access to family planning services. Between July 2022 and March 2023, the team deployed mobile and stationary health units across the country along migration routes. Local volunteers helped assess community needs, and the medical team offered free consultations and a range of contraceptives to women, reaching more than 7.000 women with consultations and providing access to a contraceptive method of choice to more than 4.000 women.