Reflections from the 3rd International Conference on Family Planning

By Cynthia Nyakwama; World Vision Kenya, Asrat Dibaba; World Vision East Africa Region; Adrienne Allison; World Vision US

The 3rd International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP) took place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 12th to 15th November 2013. It was the largest ever global gathering of leaders of governments, multilateral and bilateral organizations, and NGOs.  It followed an earlier conference in Kampala (2009) and Dakar (2011). There were more than 1,000 presentations and poster discussions.

The conference theme was “Full Access, Full Choice” and many presentations focused on barriers to contraceptive use.  It was also noted that some developing countries have attained their Millennium Development Goals through deliberate efforts and commitments by their governments to work closely with partners to address the barriers to accessing these services.  Some governments have developed policies to allow for task sharing whereby community health workers provide some family planning services. For example, the Ethiopia Health Extension Program includes 38,000 Health extension workers who provide counseling and some contraceptives.  This extensive coverage has resulted in the Contraceptive Prevalence Rate increasing from 14% to 28% between 2005 and 2011.

Addressing maternal and child mortality and morbidity through the provision of reproductive health services is an essential component of the development agenda. One observer noted that, ‘Plenary session panels focused on the importance of empowering women and girls to enable them to have full access to family planning services, but there was far too little emphasis on the multiple roles of men and boys in supporting gender equality and participating in family planning decision making’.

World Vision’s Approach to Family Planning  is through a USAID tested approach of Healthy Timing and Spacing of Pregnancy (HTSP). This is an intervention to help women and families make an informed decision to delay the first pregnancy and spacing of subsequent pregnancies, limiting pregnancies to a mother’s healthiest years, ages 20 to 34 to achieve the healthiest outcomes for women, , infants, and children . Decisions about HTSP, need to be made within the context of free and informed contraceptive choice, taking into account fertility intentions and desired family size, as well as the social and cultural contexts.

Another major theme emerging at the ICFP was reproductive rights.  These rights include the right to safe abortion – an issue that World Vision does not support.  We discussed the importance of the ‘family planning tent being large enough to include those who support family planning but not abortion’ with key US policy makers and, in doing so, won support from foundations that hold similar positions’, said Allison. ‘We also urged the conference organizers to be more purposeful in including Faith Based Organisations (FBOs) in the next ICFP, in 2015 in Indonesia’. 

The unmet need for Family Planning in most resource-poor countries ranges from 25% to 33%.  This means that there are women who do not want another child within two years but are not using any method of contraception because of barriers, including distance, stockouts, cost, and lack of trained providers.

World Vision Ethiopia participated in the planning the conference, and hosted a booth visited by more than 1,000 people. The Child Health Now banner was prominently displayed, along with the MOMENT Project banner and smaller posters on WV’s Healthy Timing and Spacing of Pregnancy (HTSP) programs in Burundi, Ethiopia, Haiti, India and Senegal.  Adrienne Allison made a presentation on World Vision’s Reproductive Health Policy and our family planning programs. Asrat Dibaba led a Round Table discussion on training couples in Burundi who timed and spaced their pregnancies, to counsel other couples on its benefits.

Adolescent pregnancy poses a grave risk for teens, especially those under 15 years of age who are five times more likely to die, compared to women age 20 to 29.  Speakers called for life skills education for all teens, with support from parents, community and religious leaders.

Throughout the three days of meetings, speakers also discussed the challenges to increasing contraceptive use among youth, the largest such cohort in global history.  Several participants observed that because many youth are not interested in planning their families, the term “family planning” is not appropriate and does not resonate with them.  They recommended rephrasing this to “contraceptive use” to appeal more directly to those primarily interested in their immediate need to be protected from pregnancy.

The conference ended with a call to action seeking to keep focus on family planning and sexual and reproductive health as part of the post-2015 development framework.