By Onyi Ijeh, Coordinator, Communications, FP2030
As FP2030 continues to build out to a regional hub structure, we are deepening our work and partnerships in the Latin America and Caribbean Region (LAC). We recently convened a gathering of regional experts on the current challenges and opportunities around sexual and reproductive health. (You can watch the full recording here.)
After the launch of FP2020 at the London Summit in 2012, FP2020 committed to a goal of enabling 120 million additional users of voluntary rights-based contraception in the 69 lowest-income countries by 2020. While this approach had many successes, it meant there was limited participation in Latin America region. By contrast, FP2030 is open to all countries and stakeholders — an exciting opportunity to expand strengthen the family planning movement and extend the FP2030 global support network to countries in the Latin America and Carribean region.
Liliana Schmitz and Nora Quesada, FP2030 Consultants, Latin America and the Caribbean, have been instrumental in introducing the FP2030 support network to organizations already working in the region, and building a regional hub that capitalizes on the momentum the Latin American family planning movement has already created. During their travels to eight countries in the region — Honduras, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Mexico — they met with key regional stakeholders, partners, government officials, feminist organizations, youth-led organizations, and members of civil society.
“It has given us the opportunity to assess the state of family planning programs in the region. We found that FP2030 has been met with excitement and an open mind, as well as great expectations of what the partnership will bring. Many are eager to have another partner helping to move the family planning agenda forward within the context of the region.”
There have been important progress made for reproductive health in the region: policy victories for abortion access in Mexico and Argentina, as well as the adoption of more comprehensive sex education in many communities, and in some cases, expanded budgets for family planning and related programs. Still, there is much work to be done: high rates of adolescent pregnancies persists in the region, and comprehensive data remains difficult to access.
The big question that remains to be answered is “What’s next?” In a region with many other issues and concerns, such as adolescent and youth pregnancy, gender-based violence, migration, the rights of people with disabilities, the rights of indigenous and Afro-Latino people. FP2030 recognizes that it is joining a robust SRH community with a complex agenda. Watch our recent discussion to hear reflections on how FP2030 can contribute — and join us in April for an announcement of FP2030’s host organization and location of the Latin America and Caribbean Regional Hub.
