The Leadership Development Program for Mobilizing Reproductive Health(LDM), implemented by the Institute of International Education (IIE) West Coast Regional Center, is a unique program that supports leadership development opportunities for reproductive health leaders who live and work in the poorest regions of five focus countries: Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, and the Philippines. Many of these leaders work on such pressing global health issues as HIV/AIDS, adolescent reproductive health, gender-based violence, and access to quality family planning services and improved maternal health care. The program is made possible by the generous support of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.

Since 2000, over 480 men and women have accessed leadership development opportunities through the LDM program. The majority participated in short-term leadership or reproductive health training courses in their own countries or in regional settings. Placing priority on women, youth and media professionals, the LDM program has recognized the need to balance global gender inequalities, train today's youth to lead tomorrow's population programs, and gain the commitment of media leaders to promote population issues and family planning.

The vision for the third and current phase of the LDM program (2006-2008) is that leadership Fellows working individually and collectively will have affected systematic changes that increase family planning and reproductive health policies and services in the five focus countries, resulting in improved reproductive health outcomes for the most vulnerable populations. In this next phase, emerging leaders will have the opportunity to examine population and reproductive health issues through a variety of leadership development activity.