In Focus
Strategies and successes along the road towards increasing VNR donation and achieving sustainable blood supplies in Nigeria, Cameroon and Kenya and Latin America
Introduction
Much of our knowledge on donor recruitment and retention derives from research originating in high-income countries that are well-funded and have 100% voluntary non-remunerated (VNR) donation systems.
These findings may not apply to low and middle-income countries (LMIC) where donation systems can be a mix of VNR, replacement and paid donors. Sharing insights from countries with mixed donation systems on the work they are doing to strengthen sustainable blood systems can help countries with similar challenges and contributes to global understandings of donors and donation. These articles share work taking place in Kenya, Cameroon, Nigeria and Mexico to understand and support sustainable blood donation systems and VNR donation. They are based on presentations from working party members given at our hybrid meeting in June 2025.
Experiences from these countries remind us how important it is to consider blood donation systems starting from the level of the country and institution, in addition to investigating donor motivations and barriers.
For example, factors such as how blood banks are funded and their connection with broader health systems and hospitals can influence trust in donation and donation rates. Further, country-level factors, such as prevalence of anaemia will influence what proportion of the population is eligible to donate. More knowledge is needed about the perceived costs of donation for donors in LMIC and what incentives could help to offset costs to attract and retain donors within a VNR donation framework.
The donors and donation working party is planning to contribute to this knowledge in 2026 through research to identify and compare donor retention strategies employed across low, medium and high-income countrie, conduct a review of literature on how other countries have reached 100% voluntary donors, and to map the types of public health partnerships that blood operators across different settings engage in. If you or your working party is interested in collaborating with us on any of these projects please reach out: rthorpe@redcrossblood.org.au.
