Dear colleague,
Saturday, July 11, was World Population Day, an opportunity to focus on the progress made toward achieving the promise of the International Conference on Population and Development. It was also the anniversary of the Family Planning 2020 partnership. FP2020 was created at the London Summit on Family Planning in 2012 out of a desire to accelerate efforts to increase access to and voluntary use of family planning around the world.
Together, we have made important progress, fostering strong connections across countries, regions, and even sectors that have yielded greater collaboration and learning. We witnessed the strength of these relationships during our recent virtual workshops with FP2020 focal points in Africa and Asia. Even though we couldn’t be in the same room together, the discussions that took place online were as vital and engaging as ever.
Our progress has obviously been tempered by the COVID-19 pandemic. But even in the face of this global disruption, FP2020 partners quickly mobilized to ensure that family planning was safeguarded as an essential health service. It has been inspiring to be a part of the conversations and see the innovations that organizations have implemented, whether to ensure that adequate reproductive health supplies reached the last mile or to engage non-traditional means of delivering contraception. I am proud that FP2020 has been able to provide a platform for these discussions, as we have in other moments.
Recognizing the disruption caused by the pandemic, we decided to launch the commitment process to the 2021-2030 partnership in January 2021. At that time, we will also release the final FP2020 progress report and celebrate the work we have done together in the last eight years. This important moment will also mark the next step in the journey to the future iteration of our partnership. Between January and November 2021, we will be working with you to develop new commitments so that we can introduce the new partnership at the International Conference on Family Planning in Pattaya, Thailand. During that time, we will also be constructing the new structures that will support the partnership, in line with the vision we developed together last year.
We look forward to continuing on this journey with you.
Sending best wishes that you and your families stay safe and healthy,
Beth Schlachter
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Emergency Contraception is More Important Now – During a Global Pandemic – Than Ever
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Ngong Jacqueline Shaka is a medical doctor with more than three years of clinical experience practice in Bamenda, Cameroon. Dr Ngong also leads Youth 2 Youth, an NGO that advocates for adolescent health care rights, emphasizing sexual and reproductive health and rights. Dr. Ngong is the FP2020 Youth Focal Point for Cameroon. In this blog post written with Cate Lane, the FP2020 Adolescents and Youth Director, the two explain why access to emergency contraception is more important than ever before.
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Focal Point Workshops Go Virtual Amid Global Pandemic
One of the “group photos” from the final Focal Point Workshop during this phase of the partnership.
This summer we have seen a number of global meetings forced to shift to online formats, leading to innovations in meeting design and compressed agendas. The FP2020 regional focal point workshops (Anglophone Africa and Asia) scheduled to take place in June were no different. Due to the pandemic, the workshops were held virtually, in four-hour sessions, over the course of one week.
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RESOURCES FROM THE FIELD
FP2020 & AVAC: A new microsite and video campaign examines family planning and HIV integration
A year after the results from the Evidence for Contraceptive Options and HIV Outcomes (ECHO) clinical trial were released, we are learning more about promising models for integration. Last week, FP2020 hosted a virtual event with AVAC during the first-ever Virtual AIDS2020, to discuss what gains have been made in the year following the ECHO trial results. Don’t miss a suite of newly developed videos, factsheets, and information on the newly launched www.srhintegration.org, linked below.
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International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics: Examining the negative impact of COVID‐19 on contraception and sexual and reproductive health
Could immediate postpartum LARCs be part of the solution?
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Updated HIP: Supply Chain Management: Investing in the supply chain is critical to achieving family planning goals
Stockouts of popular contraceptive products are common and persistent across many countries. Establishing and maintaining effective supply chain management is essential to making modern contraceptives available and thus helping individuals achieve their reproductive goals. This updated High Impact Practices (HIP) in Family Planning brief, originally published in 2012, focuses on key practices to strengthen the management of each step of the supply chain from the manufacturer to the service delivery point.
LOOKING AHEAD
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How to fulfill commitments to SDG 3.7 in the time of COVID-19
Guttmacher Institute
July 14, 8 – 9 am EDT
Register
Spotlight Webinar Series
Two tools for a total market approach in family planning
