The Ambassador who helped Togo’s government mobilize domestic resources for VAN membership
Dr. Abram Amétépé Agossou
Dr. Abram Agossou, Director of Maternal and Child Health with the Togo Ministry of Health, came on board as a VAN Ambassador during the 2023 Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition’s General Membership Meeting. Togo became a member of the VAN in 2021, and since then has increased its use of the network to expand access to reproductive health supplies.
Dr. Agossou began his career as a pediatrician, dedicated to improving the health of children in Togo. It wasn’t long before he realized how closely linked maternal and child health are. “I understood that I could do better by taking care of both the child and the mother. This is how I became interested in reproductive health and family planning, which not only helps reduce maternal mortality, but also allows the mother to be fulfilled and participate economically in the life of the family.”
Excitingly, Togo recently became the first country to pay for its VAN membership using government resources. We caught up with Dr. Agossou to hear about this impressive milestone and how use of the VAN has grown over the past several years.
Why did Togo decide to become a VAN Premium Member?
Togo became a Premium Member because this level allows the country to be active in the platform and interact directly with analysts and donors at the global level. Togo appreciates Premium benefits such as improved collaborative supply chain management with others, added support from an assigned analyst who collaborates directly with our country planner, and the ability to work in the ‘multi-collaboration view’ which allows us to see inventory, order and shipment data, and supply plans on one screen.
Since becoming a Premium member, the ease of accessing information and working with the analyst have been some of the most important changes. Most of all, we’ve been able to strengthen our capacity to adapt supply plans and coordinate supply planning with partners.
As a VAN Ambassador, how do you champion the VAN in your work?
The VAN helps us get the products so the supply chain and reproductive health programs can function at its best. Once you know the VAN, it becomes difficult to do without it. It is like a pilot of an airplane struggling when the lights on his dashboard stop working.
Togo recently experienced a significant sustainability milestone, becoming the first country to use its own domestic resources to pay for their VAN Premium membership subscription. Can you tell us about your experience leading this process and what it entailed?
In Togo, we’ve ensured the VAN’s sustainability by integrating the payment of the membership fee into the country’s Family Planning budget. The seeds for this were planted back in April 2023, after we held our first Premium training.
Following that initial training, we began to sensitize our key stakeholders on what the VAN is, its advantages for Togo, and how it can help us achieve our national commitments and ensure we are meeting the family planning product needs of our clients. We included the subject of the VAN in the Supply Plan Review Committee’s quarterly meeting, emphasizing that while the membership payment for the first year would be made by partners, Togo would subsequently take over this responsibility for ownership and sustainability. The following week, I went to meet the Secretary General of the Ministry of Health in person to raise his awareness about the VAN and the implications for Togo. It must be said that the Secretary General is a great leader who listens attentively to directors and program managers. So, when the time came and we wanted to start the process of making our own membership payment, I went to see the Secretary General again.
During that visit, I told him that the time has come when Togo must pay to ensure sustainability and remain a Premium member to guarantee the security of our contraceptive products. We were not able to continue our previous payment structure for the VAN due to organizational changes with one of our partners. We were at risk of losing access to the platform, so we began discussions with our Ministry of Health and Ministry of Finance to add the fee to our Family Planning budget line.
After re-engaging with the Secretary General, he went to see the Minister of Health to convince him, and he gave his agreement.
The big challenge was the payment procedure between the VAN team and the public procurement team, because this is the first time that the Government has engaged in this type of process. There were a lot of administrative formalities to wade through and it took time for all parties to agree on the terms. We signed all the paperwork and transferred the payment at the end of August 2024!
With the commitment and support of each other, we are there.
Why was the VAN worth investing in as a country?
It is often said that there is no program if there is no product. A tool [the VAN] that improves the availability of products and therefore the proper functioning of the family planning program can only be supported by a country that makes maternal and child health a priority.
What would you like to see in the future?
I think we can use the VAN to share information regionally on stock levels, planned purchases, and current orders between countries. The use of VAN in the context of joint supply planning will also be an opportunity for the exchange of experiences and good practices between countries.
Togo cannot afford to overstock products or run out of stock since it depends heavily on partners for supplies. Our ability to control stock levels makes us better partners and representatives of our citizens.
