Dear colleagues,
I’m pleased to be writing to you on the heels of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, where FP2030 was able to meet with several critical leaders about gender equality and family planning – and discuss how rights-based family planning acts as a development catalyst across the 2030 agenda. It was an exhilarating few days, with several landmark announcements, and we were so pleased to see rights-based family planning at the center of the broader global development agenda. You can read more of my reflections from UNGA here.
I recently sat down with Chris Purdy at DKT International to talk about how the private sector can work together with global non-government organizations as well as government partners to spark more progress on family planning. I was also pleased to see this recent piece in the New York Times calling attention to community health workers globally. This workforce is predominantly female and their work is often unpaid or underpaid – a major crisis in the making when development goals, healthcare delivery, emergency response, and even pandemic preparedness hinges on this workforce.
Family planning is a uniquely intersectional issue, and if our approach is not also uniquely intersectional, taking into account gender equality, economic realities, and overlapping identities, we will fail. As I’ve said before, we need sectors like climate change, we need people coming from tech, we need advocates, we need governments to be on our side. We need people and communities from around the world, from every sector, to help move this agenda forward, and if we don’t invest in family planning, we will not achieve the SDGs.
So please, join us in working together to build a future where everyone, everywhere has the power and information they need to make their own decisions about their reproductive health. Onward!
Sincerely,
Samukeliso Dube
FP2030 Executive Director
These 7 specific actions will help improve reproductive health
Billionaire American philanthropist Bill Gates pointed out in the annual Goalkeepers report that we are “missing the mark” when it comes to reaching our highest potential as international development practitioners, and we agree. As seasoned professionals in the sexual and reproductive health sector, we believe that to do better, the SRHR field needs the support of governments, donors, local and international NGO partners, and the private sector. Read more from Samukeliso Dube, FP2030, and Chris Purdy, DKT International.
How to build expertise in sexual health and reproductive rights
Good sexual and reproductive health, according to the United Nations Population Fund, requires people to have access to sexual health information, affordable contraceptives, and skilled birth attendants while being able to make their own choices about their sexual and reproductive health.
As it stands, however, only 1 in 2 girls between the ages of 15 and 19 have their demands for family planning met by modern methods. There are 121 million unintended pregnancies each year, and globally 14% of births remain unattended by somebody skilled. Learn more in this piece from Devex.
Smart advocacy strategies development workshop for CSOs held in Zambia
FP2030 East and Southern Africa Hub, in partnership with the Centre for Reproductive Health and Education, recently conducted a three-day long Smart Advocacy training workshop just outside Lusaka. Zambia recently launched its FP2030 commitment, committing to spending $12 million in 2023 among other goals. FP2030 will continue to support country partners in Zambia and throughout the region to track country commitments, set goals, and achieve “quick wins.” Read more.
Gender training focuses on building intersectional work
FP2030 has concluded a “gender mapping” process throughout its regional hubs, which confirmed social norms, often influenced by religion, culture, and traditions, as well as economic issues, are preventing women, adolescents, young people, and other groups from accessing key information and services on sexual reproductive health. The East and Southern Africa (ESA) Regional Hub just completed a new training to better inform their work through a gender lens. Read more.
Making Inroads on Emergency Preparedness
The FP2030 Eastern and Southern Africa Hub has started to socialize the Emergency Preparedness and Response (EPR) agenda through a series of online introductory meetings with selected countries in the region based on their fragility index and the availability of EPR commitments. Read more.
Building FP2030
FP2030 is pleased to share Sumita Banerjee has joined as the new Managing Director of the FP2030 Asia & Pacific Regional Hub. You can hear more from Sumita and her hopes for the role and region in her recent piece marking World Contraception Day.
FP2030 is currently seeking a Director; Finance and Operations. Learn more here.
In Other News
FP2030’s Dr. Samukeliso Dube recently wrote about making disruptions to the status quo for International Youth Day. “For International Youth Day, Let’s Make Changes to ‘Business as Usual’” discusses how young people, governments, and NGOs can all work together to achieve family planning goals. You can hear more from Samu in her reflections from UNGA, and a rallying cry to the global community that we must invest in family planning to achieve the SDGs.
HIPs recently published an updated brief on “Strengthening Partnership with Faith Actors in Family Planning: A Strategic Planning Guide.” This HIP brief highlights how FP faith actors can be included and utilized in the family planning process. For more information on HIPs, see https://www.fphighimpactpractices.org/
FP2030 and PMNCH collaborated on “1.8 Billion Young People Deserve Power Over Their Reproductive Futures” to call attention to the need for more investment in family planning for young people. Acknowledging the improvements in recent years, they note still how few countries allocate money for adolescents and youth, and how it is on all of us to change this.
Don’t miss Season 6 of Knowledge Success’ podcast exploring the details of family planning programming, “Let’s Talk About Sex(ual and Reproductive Health).” The transcripts for all episodes are available in English and French.
The Global Contraception Policy Atlas – Africa by EPF and IPPF seeks to document, map and benchmark the performance of countries’ political leadership on family planning and offer concrete recommendations and suggestions for how they may improve. It scores 53 countries across the African continent on their political leadership on family planning focusing on access to contraceptives, national and international commitments ensuring access to supplies, and finally their funding.
Involving men and boys in family planning: A systematic review of the effective components and characteristics of complex interventions in low- and middle-income countries. This recently published article assesses the strength of evidence for involving men and boys in family planning and undercovers the practical components of using a critical process and system-level characteristics of successful interventions for their involvement.
A new study led by the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Program suggests that using more youth-friendly social and behavior change interventions for pregnant adolescents could increase early prenatal visits, which are associated with reduced malaria and improved birth outcomes.
