Meridian, the lead partner on RESPOND for engaging the private sector, created several significant public-private partnerships (PPPs).  Meridian designed and managed an employer-based initiative to increase access and use of long-acting and permanent methods of family planning with private companies. Meridian supported this initiative in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India, where as a result of Meridian’s negotiations, 15 different companies, with over 7,000 employees, provided information and services for their employees by allowing on-site health talks during working hours, identified company-paid project coordinators and allowed employees to use paid leave for services and recuperation time.

Meridian also contributed to RESPOND through a PPP that Meridian negotiated with HRAPharma, a French pharmaceutical company.  As a result of this partnership. HRAPharma donated IUDs to several family planning projects in the developing world.  The total contribution value of this donation was over $211,000.

The goal of RESPOND was to help USAID Missions, host-country counterparts, donors, multilateral organizations, and cooperating agencies meet the growing need for high-quality, effective, and sustainable family planning services and improvement of reproductive health in developing countries. It addressed the unmet need for healthy timing, spacing, and limiting of childbearing by improving access to long-acting and permanent methods (LA/PMs) of contraception.

EngenderHealth was RESPOND’s managing partner.  Other partners include: FHI (Family Health International), the Futures Institute, the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Communication Programs, and the Population Council.