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Full access, full choice family planning

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family planning conference, addis ababaFamily planning is one of the most cost-effective technologies for improving the human condition.

Approximately 287,000 women die every year from problems caused by childbirth – and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation estimates that approximately 1 in 4 of those women could be saved if they had access to contraception.

More than 200 million couples in the developing world are unable to control the number and spacing of their births and one reason for that is because family planning remains out of reach for many couples in low-income settings.

But among the many technologies available to improve the human condition, family planning is one of the most cost-effective interventions with enduring health and welfare benefits for women, families, nations – and the entire world.

However, reaching Millennium Development Goal 5b, universal access to reproductive health, requires comprehensive resource planning, which in turn requires a continually refreshed base of strong evidence, best practices and a wide range of contraceptive commodities.

The 2013 International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP), with the theme of “Full Access, Full Choice,” will be held from 12-15 November, and this year is held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The ICFP is more than a conference – it reflects a greater movement to expand and improve access to family planning worldwide, and provides a platform to build momentum and generate new commitments to the family planning agenda.

The conference, the third of its kind, is jointly organised and hosted by the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia’s Ministry of Health and the Bill & Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. The ­first was held in 2009 in Kampala, Uganda, and the second in Dakar, Senegal, in 2011.

The objectives of the ICFP have evolved since the first conference.

At that ­first conference, in Kampala, and which drew more than 1,300 participants, the aim was to encourage dialogue and positive changes in family planning policy and programs. That was one reason for by holding the conference in a country with one the highest levels of unmet need and lowest contraceptive prevalence rates.

This fi­rst conference also created a global platform for discussion about family planning issues, which had been relatively absent for more than 15 years.

The intention at the second conference, in Senegal, was to highlight family planning and reproductive health in Francophone Africa. 2,200 participants from 87 countries attended.

The 2013 ICFP aims to celebrate successes that have been achieved in family planning around the world, share recent evidence on effective programs and discuss the hurdles that still need to be addressed.

it will also call attention to the wide-ranging benefits of helping people plan their families – including improved maternal, newborn and child health, increased educational attainment, and greater economic opportunity, and highlight the national and global efforts being made to provide everyone with voluntary family planning information, services and methods that meet their needs.

Approximately 3,000 participants are expected to take part; these will include heads of state, health researchers, academicians, scientists, educators, young advocates and programmers and policy makers from around the world.

“Full Access, Full Choice” reflects the desire for all women, regardless of nationality or socioeconomic status, to have access to a variety of family planning resources and the power to make decisions about their families.

For, as Melinda Gates pointed out: “When you put the decision in the hands of the woman and you give her the tools, and you educate her about it so that she can decide whether she wants to do this, it makes a complete difference in her family’s life and ultimately in the community’s life.”

ICFP 2013 aims to build on the momentum of the 2012 London Summit on Family Planning, which generated unprecedented commitments from international donors, emerging economies, civil society and the private sector to give 120 million more women voluntary access to family planning by 2020.

And, Malawi’s president Joyce Banda added: “Many partners have a role to play in expanding family planning access, but success ultimately depends on the sustained commitment of national leaders.”

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