A year since the historic London Summit on Family Planning, the energy is converting to tangible results. Countries are taking ownership of family planning and driving progress. New approaches are giving women what they really want: voluntary access to high-quality family planning information, services and supplies.
Countries are leading the charge
Governments in more than 20 countries, including India, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Zambia, are creating plans that incorporate family planning into their women’s and children’s health programs. An additional three to four countries are gearing up to make new commitments. More than 10 countries have already held their own local summits and national family planning conferences.
Innovative public-private partnerships are increasing access to a variety of contraceptive methods
Two agreements have been negotiated to make long-acting, reversible contraceptive implants — Jadelle and Implanon — available to millions of women in the world’s poorest countries at more than a 50 percent price reduction. By making this under-utilized method more affordable and accessible, millions of women and girls will have the power to create better lives for themselves, their families, and their communities. In addition to Merck and Bayer, the partnership includes the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Clinton Health Access Initiative, the governments of Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation and the United Nations Population Fund. In 13 countries, PSI is an implementing partner for these agreements with funding from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation and commodities supplied by the U.K. Department for International Development.
Collaborative efforts are also underway to scale up the delivery of discreet, injectible contraceptives. Sayana Press is a new way of delivering Depo-Provera, packaged in the Uniject injection system; and will increase the ease, safety, and reach of non-clinical service delivery through community-based distribution. Injectible contraceptives are among the world’s most popular methods for preventing pregnancy, offering women safe and effective protection, convenience, and privacy. The partnership includes the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development, the United States Agency for International Development, the United Nations Population Fund, Pfizer, PATH, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Initial countries interested in taking part include Senegal and Nigeria.
PSI and its partners continue to work towards meeting the FP2020 objectives, so that by 2020, an additional 120 million women who want contraceptives can get them. This would cumulatively result in more than 100 million fewer unintended pregnancies, 3 million fewer babies dying in their first year of life, and 200,000 fewer women and girls dying in pregnancy and childbirth. We are united by a single powerful premise: what matters is doing everything we can to help women and girls flourish worldwide.
About FP2020
Family Planning 2020 (FP2020) is a global partnership that supports the right of women and girls to decide, freely, and for themselves, whether, when, and how many children they want to have. FP2020 works with governments, civil society, multi-lateral organizations, donors, the private sector, and the research and development community to enable 120 million more women and girls to use contraceptives by 2020. FP2020 is an outcome of the 2012 London Summit on Family Planning where more than 20 governments made commitments to address the policy, financing, delivery and socio-cultural barriers to women accessing contraceptive information, services and supplies. Donors also pledged an additional US$2.6 billion in funding.
