SEMA was announced in July 2021 alongside the Generation Equality Forum in France, with country governments from Nigeria, Burkina Faso, and Uganda; financial support from the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (MAE); and strategic partnership from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the Foreign Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO), and the Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition. The donors have currently committed approximately $55-70 million over five years to launch this organization with the aspiration to mobilize additional resources.
SEMA will operate in a lean coordinating structure backed by in-country focal points. SEMA will implement select functions directly and manage a pool of re-granting or contracted services via implementing partners to leverage and invest in ecosystem partners. SEMA is being incubated within Amref Health Africa to rapidly scale and deliver quick wins from the get-go and will spin out to form an independent entity once established. It is overseen by a governing body and leverages a technical oversight committee of a diverse group of experts for strategic and technical advice.
SEMA Head-of-Markets
The Head of Markets is responsible for leading how SEMA supports and partners with countries and global partners to prioritize market problems, design solutions, and coordinate interventions to overcome market problems. This approach should keep in mind how to keep countries in the driver’s seat, how to leverage and build the ecosystem, how to align and coordinate with others effectively, but also how to break bad habits/practices, try new strategies, and design for the future. This role will work with the SEMA Country Leads to ensure they provide a common vision and learn from each other. Success for this role is that over time (i) countries are approaching SEMA as a partner to understand and collaborate in tackling SRH market problems and (ii) SEMA is providing a collaborative platform for countries and global partners to jointly and effectively collaborate to build healthy, resilient, and equitable SRH markets to meet community needs.
