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Assessment of Commercial Partnership Opportunities in Russia

Contraceptive use in Russia is relatively recent and despite a rapid decline in recent years, abortion is still a preferred family planning method. Among modern methods, intra-uterine devices (IUDs) are the most widely used, followed by condoms. Hormonal contraceptives have not reached full acceptance in Russia, although the sales of these products have reportedly increased by 160% since 2002. USAID/Russia has been implementing reproductive health and family planning (RH/FP) projects in close collaboration with Russia's Ministry of Health since the mid 1990s. The agency supported the Women's Reproductive Health Program (WRHP), the Women and Infant Health (WIN) project, and is currently supporting the Maternal and Child Health Initiative (MCHI), and Healthy Russia 2020 (HR 2020). These projects focus on large-scale training of providers in several health areas, including RH/FP. Concurrently with public and donor-funded efforts, a healthy market for contraceptive products has been developing in the private sector since the 1990s. Distributors have been importing contraceptive products in response to growing consumer demand, and manufacturers have invested in a wide range of provider and consumer-directed marketing activities. Although contraceptives are overwhelmingly provided through private distribution networks in Russia, there have been limited attempts at collaboration between RH/FP programs and the private sector. As a precursor to possible collaborative activities, USAID/Russia requested an assessment of the availability and quality of modern contraceptives as well as recommendations on expanding the method mix among the general population. The PSP-One assessment team approached this assessment as a multi-sector analysis and sought to identify common ground between public health goals and private sector interests.