WUNRN
NEW INITIATIVE TO BOOST FAMILY
PLANNING SERVICES FOR YOUTH, VULNERABLE GROUPS, COUNTRIES IN TRANSITION
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May 2013 - KUALA LUMPUR—A new level of partnership that will bring a
significant boost in investment to family planning services in 13 countries,
with a focus on vulnerable groups, particularly in areas affected by natural
disasters and conflict, was launched by UNFPA, the
United Nations Population Fund and the International Planned Parenthood
Federation (IPPF) today at Women Deliver in
Kuala Lumpur.
The initiative will contribute to filling the gap in health care
infrastructure, boosting the quality of the health workforce, developing
efficient family planning distribution systems and ensuring affordable family
planning supplies.
"Family planning has been at the heart of UNFPA's work for more than 40
years, and partnerships like this are key to ensuring that hard-to-reach and
under-served populations, particularly women, girls and young people, get
access to the reproductive health they need," said UNFPA Executive
Director, Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin. "We welcome this initiative and value
our longstanding partnership with IPPF, considering its support for family
planning and its substantial service delivery capacity."
The combination of IPPF’s experience of service delivery and UNFPA’s strong
country presence will help address the unmet need for voluntary contraception
and increase political and financial support for voluntary family planning and
sexual and reproductive health services at the national level.
The partnership, which will also ensure that innovative strategies are included
and funded by national plans, is being fine-tuned with information collected
during assessments carried out throughout the year. Such assessments have so
far been completed in Côte d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria and
South Sudan.
IPPF’s Director General, Tewodros Melesse, said: “Our two organizations have
worked together over many years, and I’m proud that we can have a key joint
role as we work towards the FP2020 goals. There cannot be meaningful
development without sexual and reproductive health and rights—we’re the largest
NGO dealing with these issues on the ground.”
A series of innovative approaches will help increase access to family planning
among hard to reach populations. The effort is intended to make significant
contributions to enable 120 million more women and girls to access family
planning by 2020 – the goal committed to at the London Summit on Family
Planning in July 2012.
As part of the initiative, seven IPPF Member Associations will work in close
collaboration with UNFPA to provide around 2 million family planning services
by 2013, with plans to increase that to 25 million by 2015. Young people are
expected to constitute about 30 per cent of the beneficiaries.
Minorities and marginalized groups are also important beneficiaries, especially
in countries that have already made progress, such as Kenya, where, despite
advances, contraceptive prevalence rate is considerably lower among minority
groups. Among migrants who cross the Northern border seeking refuge in the
country, for example, contraceptive use is around 4 per cent, while the
national average is around 50 per cent.
Cultural barriers make it more difficult for women and unmarried individuals to
seek and access the family planning services they need. Through this new
collaboration, UNFPA and IPPF are using their combined experience to reach
these individuals and couples.
In Côte d'Ivoire, 60 per cent of women who wish to delay or avoid a pregnancy
are not using modern methods of contraception. Only 36 per cent of the
country’s health facilities offer a choice of modern contraceptive methods. The
adolescent girls’ birth rate has increased from 111/1,000 in 2005 to 129/1,000
in 2012.
Since UNFPA established a community-based contraceptive distribution programme
in partnership with the Ministry of Health in the Toumodi health district last
year, the number of new users of family planning has nearly doubled.
The joint UNFPA/IPPF initiative will scale up other community-based
contraceptive distribution schemes.
In many developing countries, it is not uncommon for girls who lack access to
contraception to have early pregnancies—especially in contexts that encourage
early marriage or where information and access to voluntary family planning are
limited.
In Little Bassa, Liberia, a 25-year-old mother of six recently told an
assessment team that she had never heard of family planning methods before. She
asked if she could use family planning since she was tired of having so many
children, with no sustainable means of income.
IPPF and UNFPA plan to address these gaps, contributing to a broader initiative
to assist more than half a million Liberian women with micro-financing schemes,
skills training and health support, including family planning.
The new approach will vary according to the context and needs.
In Haiti, a new community-based project that addresses sexual health and family
planning will be launched by IPPF member association Profamilia and UNFPA to
bolster the work of the country’s Health and Population Ministry.
Targeting specific administrative areas in Haiti—West, South-East and
L’Artibonite—the partnership will address shortcomings in sexual and
reproductive health provision among populations with very little access to
quality services.
The collaboration between IPPF and UNFPA builds upon the institutions’
long-standing history of co-operation on sexual and reproductive health. The
target countries—Bolivia, Côte d'Ivoire, The Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Ethiopia, Haiti, India, Kenya, Liberia, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pacific Islands,
Pakistan and South Sudan—all have low contraceptive prevalence rates and
considerable unmet need for family planning.
Countries still recovering from prolonged conflict or natural disasters will
receive support as part of rebuilding efforts. Other priority countries will
focus on minorities, youth and vulnerable populations.
Family planning directly benefits women and girls through increased family
savings and productivity, as well as better prospects for education and
employment. It also improves health outcomes as fewer unintended pregnancies
result in fewer complications during childbirth and fewer maternal deaths.
UNFPA works to deliver a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every
childbirth is safe and every young person’s potential is fulfilled.
Founded in 1952, The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) is both
a service provider and an advocate of sexual and reproductive health and
rights. The organisation is a worldwide network of 152 Member Associations
active in more than 170 countries. Learn more at www.ippf.org.