The department’s Contraceptive Implants Access Programme won the Best International Procurement Project of the Year at the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS) Awards this month.
The programme aims to provide traditionally-expensive contraceptive implants for 27m women across the developing world. It is expected to save 280,00 infant and 30,000 maternal deaths over the next six years.
DfID worked with a consortium of public and private organisations to negotiate an agreement with pharmaceutical company Bayer to reduce the cost of its implants.
DfID minister Lynne Featherstone said: “By improving access to reliable contraception, we are helping to prevent millions of unwanted pregnancies and hundreds of thousands of deaths.”