FAMILY PLANNING 2020
Today, more than 200 million women and girls in developing countries who do not want to get pregnant lack access to contraceptives and family planning information, and services - which, for many, will cost them their lives. It has been proven that family planning saves lives, improves health, strengthens communities, and stimulates economic growth. Contraceptives are one of the best investments a country can make in its future.
The Government of the United Kingdom and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with UNFPA and other partners hosted the London Summit on Family Planning on 11 July 2012. More than 150 leaders from developing and donor countries, international agencies, civil society, foundations and the private sector united to make a global commitment to provide an additional 120 million women and girls in the world's poorest countries access to voluntary family planning services, information and supplies by 2020.
Family Planning 2020 (FP2020) builds on the partnerships launched at the London Summit on Family Planning. It will sustain the momentum from London and ensure all partners are working together to achieve and support the goals and commitments announced at the Summit.
FP2020 will:
- Track progress and report on financial and policy commitments made at the Summit, linking with established accountability processes for the UN Secretary General's Every Woman Every Child strategy;
- Monitor and report on global and country progress toward the FP2020 Summit goals;
- Identify obstacles and barriers to achieving Summit goals and recommend solutions;
- Ensure promotion of voluntary family planning and concrete measures to prevent coercion and discrimination, and ensure respect for human rights;
- Ensure data availability to support all of the above, consistent with country processes and sharing data, such as through a global score card; and
- Publish an annual report to update the global community on progress and challenges.
Coordinating Structure for FP2020
- A high-level group of FP2020 Champions to provide leadership, influence and support on behalf of FP2020.
- An 18-member Reference Group, initially to be chaired by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), and comprising of countries, donor partners, civil society and technical partners and agencies, to set overall strategic direction for FP2020, drive coordination among stakeholders and be accountable for reaching 120 million additional women by 2020.
- A small, dedicated Task Team, reporting to the Reference Group and hosted by the UN Foundation, that is responsible for day-to-day implementation of FP2020 activities.
- Four Working Groups, to provide technical advice and support: Performance Monitoring and Accountability; Rights and Empowerment; Market Dynamics; and Country Engagement.
Background
At the London Summit on Family Planning on 11 July 2012, more than 20 developing countries made commitments to address the policy, financing and delivery barriers to women accessing contraceptive information, services and supplies. Donors made new financial commitments to support these plans amounting to US $2.6 billion. The Summit underscored the importance of access to contraceptives as a transformational health and development priority.
The commitments made at the Summit illustrate the global support for the vision that women and girls should have the right to decide, freely and for themselves, whether, when and how many children they have. By 2020, the commitments made at the Summit will result in 200,000 fewer women dying in pregnancy and childbirth, more than 110 million fewer unintended pregnancies, over 50 million fewer abortions and nearly 3 million fewer babies dying in their first year of life.
