The Challenge Initiative (TCI) offers a unique approach to financing, scaling up and sustaining family planning programs designed to address the rapid urbanization taking place in Africa and Asia. TCI has engaged more than 200 city governments across 13 countries with support to implement high-impact family planning practices and other interventions that rapidly scale access to family planning information and services. Led by Johns Hopkins’ William H. Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health with support from Bayer AG and the Gates Foundation, TCI works through six regional hubs in East Africa, Francophone West Africa, India, Nigeria, Pakistan and the Philippines. To participate in TCI, local governments must commit their own financial and human resources and political will. Once accepted, they can access TCI’s Challenge Fund, which is seed money to incentivize participation, and TCI coaching to support quality implementation of evidence-based family planning solutions. TCI also coaches local governments in skills such as management and leadership. Since launching in 2016, TCI has contributed to an additional 4.5 million family planning users in 213 cities across 13 countries – Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Kenya, India, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Senegal, Tanzania, Togo, and Uganda – covering a total population footprint of 244 million.

Learn more about what makes the The Challenge Initiative (TCI) so innovative in the UVA Darden School of Business’s Ideas to Action article.