Experts to assess challenges of family planning
Thousands of experts, advocates and leaders will gather in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in November to assess global family planning progress and challenges one year after the historic London Summit on Family Planning.
The conference, which will be the third, is on the theme “Full Access, Full Choice.”
The International Conference on Family Planning 2013 (ICFP 2013) would call attention to the wide-ranging benefits of helping couples plan and space their births and take stock of progress to ensure that everyone has access to voluntary family planning services and methods that meet their needs.
A press release issued by the conference secretariat and copied to the Ghana News Agency on Wednesday said the conference, which would begin on November 12-15 would have political leaders, scientists, health care professionals, advocates and young leaders from around the globe to share the latest data, research and programme findings to help achieve the London Summit’s goal.
The 2012 London Summit on Family Planning generated unprecedented political will and financial support to reduce global unmet need for family planning by giving 120 million more women access to modern contraceptives by 2020.
The conference, which would be jointly organised by the Ministry of Health of Ethiopia and the Bill and Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, would be preceded by a High-Level Ministerial Meeting on 12 November, focusing on youth and the Demographic Dividend.
It said the conference would also recognize nations that had made new or expanded commitments to family planning and had seen the benefits of doing so. Among them would be the conference’s host country, Ethiopia.
“New political and financial commitments have reinvigorated global family planning.”
Countries including Ethiopia, Malawi and Rwanda have stepped up, but there is still much work to be done. ICFP 2013 is an opportunity to share strategies for success and continue building momentum to achieve full contraceptive access and choice for everyone everywhere,” Mr Jose “Oying” Rimon, Deputy Director of the Gates Institute said.
Ethiopia, through commitments from its government, has doubled the number of women with access to contraceptives between 2005 and 2011, and reduced unintended pregnancies, unsafe abortions and maternal and child mortality.
“Ethiopia has seen firsthand how giving a woman the resources she needs to plan her pregnancies improves not only the woman’s life, but also the health and well-being of her family and community. We look forward to sharing Ethiopia’s successes with the international community, and are eager to learn from the experiences of others, who are expanding access to family planning,” Dr. Kesetebirhan Admasu, Ethiopia’s Minister of Health added.
Source: GNA