![\"World](\"https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/img\/F48D0CC0-B19A-11EA-99F5-13F03EA4259B\/bigstock-Global-Logistics-Network-Flat--313816984_900x.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
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- Invest in and deliver more long-term contraceptives for women<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
When disruptions in the supply chain for birth control mean long periods in which women will not have access, it becomes that much more important for organizations to provide long-term contraception. In the words of Melinda Gates<\/a>, it is of vital importance for NGOs to work with businesses to develop and deliver a \u201ctwo-year supply\u201d of birth control to women, in the form of a drug that \u201cshe can just take home and administer to herself every three months or every six months.\u201d This would allow low-income women to avoid costly travel and doctors\u2019 visits while being able to use contraception without any gaps caused by emergencies.<\/p>\n
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- Create emergency matrices that triage the most needed supplies to the neediest areas<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Large suppliers and organizations such as the Gates Foundation must look to sort customers (or beneficiaries), products, and suppliers based on both importance and vulnerability. In advance of an emergency and supply chain breakdown, each entity must be ready to identify which customers and patients will be served first, which areas or states are the most vulnerable, which suppliers are the most critical (and what some alternatives might be) and how supplies will be delivered in emergent times.<\/p>\n
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- Expand the sourcing of sexual health products<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
As with many products, reproductive health supplies are generally sourced from a small handful of countries such as China. When those nations, in an emergency such as the Coronavirus, stopped production, it started a domino effect that led to delays, shortages and empty shelves in Egypt, Nigeria, Iran, Pakistan, Uganda<\/a> among others. The current crisis suggests that future planning for businesses and charitable organizations must include sourcing essential goods and services (such as sexual and reproductive health commodities) from a wider variety of suppliers worldwide.<\/p>\n
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- Increase inventories ahead of inevitable emergencies<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The Coronavirus outbreak has revealed the danger of running too lean when it comes to carrying inventory in sexual health products. Small retailers, fearing uncertainty, will likely not be convinced to increase their stock of contraceptives against future emergencies. Larger businesses and organizations, however, could and must take the initiative to lay in and stockpile supplies of condoms, IUDs, birth control pills, and other supplies against supply chain failures in the future.<\/p>\n
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- Focus on resilience and flexibility over cost<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
A brief by leading global management consultants Bain and Company<\/a> agrees with the previous two points on expanding sourcing and increasing stockpiles and adds this must be the plan going forward to increase resiliency. Businesses and organizations that may resist spending more to ensure uninterrupted supply chains must realize that the money invested in supply chain resilience will pay dividends in accelerated growth, customer satisfaction, cash flow, and savings. Their analysis shows that companies that invest in creating supply chains that can weather emergencies grow faster, increasing order rates by 20 to 40% and avoiding revenue drops of up to 66%.<\/p>\n
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- Redouble efforts in education to stave off \u201cpanic buying\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Education into the value of birth control is a key feature of most medical and organizational work in sexual health. As this crisis has shown, emergencies that create fear and uncertainty mean the need for more, not less, information that needs to be shared with women. The Faculty of Sexual & Reproductive Healthcare in Great Britain recently published a pamphlet that explained, in detail, how women would continue to have access to birth control, in an attempt to stave off the panic-buying and hoarding that can leave many small retailers without good supply. Women who depend on contraception need clear and believable information on both how to get birth control and assurance that the supply will remain steady.<\/p>\n
Consequences of the Birth Control Shortage<\/h3>\n
![\"Woman](\"https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/img\/F48D0CC0-B19A-11EA-99F5-13F03EA4259B\/bigstock-Set-Different-Types-Of-Contrac-365751700_900x.jpg\")
<\/p>\nShortages of contraceptives don\u2019t affect women and children by an immediate risk of illness, as might a shortage of antibiotics. The risk that does exist, however, is that women\u2019s physical and mental health (and therefore that of their children) will suffer in the longer term.<\/p>\n
- Redouble efforts in education to stave off \u201cpanic buying\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Focus on resilience and flexibility over cost<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Increase inventories ahead of inevitable emergencies<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Expand the sourcing of sexual health products<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Create emergency matrices that triage the most needed supplies to the neediest areas<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n