Experts and Policy Makers Renew their Commitment to Family Planning

KAMPALA — The largest conference on family planning in fifteen years concluded yesterday with nearly 1,300 international experts, policy makers and representatives of civil society reaffirming their commitment to family planning and to revitalizing it by sharing research findings and best practices.

The pitch was given at the opening ceremony, when Amy Tsui, Director of the Bill and Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health, presented a heartfelt "Welcome back to Family Planning" statement. This was then underlined by the recognition of Uganda’s First Lady, Mrs. Janet Museveni, of family planning as one of the four strategic pillars for the reduction of maternal mortality in Uganda

The event included more than 400 presentations and workshops covering various aspects of family planning, including contraceptive security, costing and financing, behaviour change communication and advocacy, integration of family planning and HIV/AIDS, and male involvement in family planning.

UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, underlined the crucial linkages between family planning and reproductive rights and gender equality. "There can be no development at the national level without the freedom and the means to act on decisions on reproductive health and family planning at the individual level,” said Bunmi Makinwa, UNFPA’s Africa Region Director. “Quality of life cannot be assured if women cannot make an informed choice and if they do not have options to choose from, especially when it comes to modern methods of contraception. This is their right.” 

“We have been inspired to act, resolved to make the change happen so that women do not die unnecessarily in childbirth, so that women and couples can plan pregnancies and get the care and advice they need, so that this can be a reality rather than a wish,” he added. “Let us go forward from this meeting in Kampala with renewed energy and determination to make sure universal access to family planning happens.”

As sustainable funding for family planning is a global challenge, development partners, including USAID, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The World Bank, UNFPA, WHO and DFID renewed their commitment to work in partnership.

Dr. Marie Louise Mbo, Minister of Health of the DR Congo, appealed to African governments and development partners to ensure that adequate family planning information and products are available, including in the most remote areas. She urged all the players to revive enthusiasm for family planning because, as she said, “together, we can.”

At a press conference during the meeting’s final day the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, USAID and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced a new three-year, $12 million project, "Advance Family Planning", to advance reproductive health and family planning efforts in regions with the greatest need, notably Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. It will reach out to governments, international donors, and multilateral agencies regarding the urgent need to invest in family planning to meet unmet needs.

Worldwide, around 200 million women say they want to delay or prevent pregnancy but are not using effective contraception. Fewer than 20 per cent of sexually active young people in Africa use contraception. To meet the unmet need for contraceptives, global population assistance for family planning should increase should increase from the current $550 million to the $2.6 billion that is per year—which is estimated to increase to over $4 billion by 2015.

The International Conference on Family Planning: Research and Best Practices , Kampala (15-18 November 2009), supported by more than 30 organizations, including UNFPA, coincided with the 15th anniversary of the Cairo International Conference on Population and Development that produced ambitious set of goals for improving reproductive health and rights around the world.

Contact Information:

Hugues Koné
Regional Communications Adviser, UNFPA
Tel: +221 77 569 76 23
kone@unfpa.org
 
Katja Iversen
Media Specialist, UNFPA
Tel: + 1 212 297 5016
iversen@unfpa.org