Institutional Partner Commitments
While country commitments set the pattern for progress in FP2020, the commitments from other sectors bring a rich diversity of resources to the table.
FP2020’s institutional partners include a broad mix of civil society organizations, multilateral agencies, and private sector stakeholders who are committed to expanding access to rights-based family planning.
Civil society organizations are at the vanguard of the initiative in every sense of the word: they are the service providers, the advocates, the researchers and scientists, and the implementing partners who help governments realize their family planning strategies. Multilateral partners furnish key support for FP2020 on the international level, cultivating a global enabling environment for progress.
As market-based drivers of innovation, private sector partners are uniquely positioned to deliver contraceptive products and services to the millions of women and girls with unmet need. Robust private sector participation in family planning contributes to an expanding base of users, more efficient distribution networks, and flexible partnerships that support new approaches. And private philanthropic foundations pour crucial resources into the FP2020 movement, providing financial sustenance for existing programs and making bold new departures possible.
HIGHLIGHTS 2014–2015
All FP2020 partners are invited to provide annual progress updates on their commitments. In this section we highlight a variety of programs and achievements from the past year.
ENGENDERHEALTH
EngenderHealth is leading the implementation of the USAID-funded Agir pour la Planification Familiale (AgirPF) project, a five-year initiative (2014–2019) to improve access to high-quality, voluntary family planning services for urban populations in Togo, Niger, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, and Mauritania. Unmet need for contraception in these countries is among the highest in the world, and EngenderHealth’s mandate is to develop a strong, sustainable approach to family planning. It’s doing this by cultivating partnerships with local, national, and international stakeholders, including a particularly thriving collaboration with the West Africa Health Organization.
In addition to training health care providers in gender-sensitive and youth-friendly services, EngenderHealth is leveraging mobile technology to reach underserved communities and working to reduce financial barriers to health care through partnerships with ministries of health and local organizations. And to ensure that family planning services meet a high standard of quality, EngenderHealth is conducting intensive training of providers at Centers of Excellence in Togo, Niger, and Burkina Faso.
POPULATION COUNCIL
The Population Council leads the USAID-funded Evidence Project, which seeks to determine which strategies work best in improving, expanding, and sustaining rights-based family planning services. The project is also evaluating how to implement and scale up those strategies. This work is currently being put in motion in Uganda. The Ugandan government’s commitment to FP2020 is articulated in its Uganda Family Planning Costed Implementation Plan, 2015–2020, which explicitly pledges to protect and fulfill human rights in the provision of family planning services. The Ministry of Health has requested technical support to translate these pledges into action, and the Evidence Project is collaborating with the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) to develop an action plan to implement, document, and test rights-based approaches to family planning at the policy, service delivery, community, and individual levels.
INTRAHEALTH
IntraHealth hosts the Coordination Unit for the Ouagadougou Partnership (OP), which oversees the OP’s efforts to expand family planning services in francophone West Africa. In 2015 the OP achieved a remarkable milestone, recording 1.18 million new users of contraception since 2011. This surpassed the original goal of reaching 1 million new users by 2015.
IntraHealth’s country work in West Africa is concentrated in Senegal and Mali. In Senegal, IntraHealth is continuing its partnership with the Ministry of Health to reduce contraceptive stock-outs. The Informed Push Model is now functioning nationwide to improve the family planning supply chain in Senegal’s public sector. In Mali, IntraHealth is leading the new USAID-funded Capacity Building for Fistula Treatment and Prevention project, which integrates family planning with fistula repair protocols. IntraHealth is working with the Ministry of Health and local partners to ensure that women leaving fistula repair centers are given the opportunity to learn about and choose modern methods of contraception.
HEWLETT FOUNDATION
The Hewlett Foundation is a core donor to the Ouagadougou Partnership, and over the past two years has strengthened its engagement with francophone West Africa. Highlights of grants in 2014 and 2015 include a significant increase in the Foundation’s support of the Ouagadougou Partnership Coordination Unit; a large, flexible grant to Marie Stopes International for developing an organizational strategy for the Sahel and testing different approaches for regional procurement and operational models; support to Hope Consulting to incorporate the results from their 2013 market segmentation analysis into government and partner programming; support to IntraHealth for family planning advocacy coalitions in Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, and Senegal; and funding to the World Faiths Development Dialogue to engage high-level faith leaders in Senegal in support of the country’s costed implementation plan.
Photo by: Mark Naftalin/FP2020
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
In June 2015 the World Health Organization (WHO) released its Medical Eligibility Criteria for Contraceptive Use, fifth edition (MEC), which contains the latest recommendations on contraceptive eligibility for women and men with various medical conditions and personal characteristics. This was accompanied by the release of the 2015 edition of the MEC Wheel, which enables providers to more easily locate information and recommendations for contraceptive methods.
WHO is committed to scaling up the availability of high-quality contraceptive commodities through product prequalification and fast-track mechanisms. In 2015 WHO approved the addition of three new contraceptive methods to the WHO Essential Medicines List: the levonorgestrel intrauterine system, the progesterone vaginal ring (for use by women actively breastfeeding at least four times a day), and the etonorgestrel-releasing hormonal contraceptive implant. WHO serves as the secretariat of the Implementing Best Practices (IBP) Consortium, which is dedicated to identifying and scaling up what works in family planning and reproductive health. IBP’s semiannual meeting in June 2015 was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia—the first time the IBP had convened in Africa. The meeting hosted over 200 participants from East and Southern Africa to share effective practices, tools, and approaches for documenting and scaling up reproductive health and family planning practices in the region.
INTERNATIONAL PLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION
As the world’s largest sexual and reproductive health service network, the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) plays a key role in the global movement toward universal access to family planning. Since the 2012 London Summit, IPPF has increased access to contraceptive services for 20.8 million new users in 59 FP2020 focus countries. IPPF has expanded its reach by improving performance, prioritizing IPPF’s core funds to support member associations in low-income countries, and continuing to ensure that choice and quality are the starting point for all clients. In 2014 alone, IPPF provided services to 8.2 million new users in FP2020 focus countries. This is a major component of the global expansion of family planning, and reflects IPPF’s focus on reaching the most marginalized and underserved groups. IPPF also delivered over 5.7 million contraceptive services to young people under 25 years of age.
PLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION OF AMERICA
Through its new Voices for Health project, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) is supporting advocates in four countries to build strong coalitions to fight for access to family planning—especially for young women who face some of the greatest obstacles to health and rights. In Burkina Faso, Senegal, and Uganda, the project is focused on improving young women’s access to family planning; in Nicaragua the project is supporting work to improve public opinion around safe abortion. Voices for Health is implemented by PPFA’s international arm, Planned Parenthood Global, and supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies.
In 2015 Planned Parenthood Global announced the launch of Healthiest Generation, a new digital platform to share stories of sexual health and reproductive rights from around the world, with a focus on young people. The site features original content from countries across Africa and Latin America, stories of change makers from around the world, and photos, videos, and GIFs illuminating the front lines of progress in reproductive health and rights.
CHILDREN'S INVESTMENT FUND FOUNDATION
In 2014 the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) made a US$16.9 million three-year commitment to increase contraceptive choice for girls and women by scaling up Sayana® Press. This investment includes a subsidy to reduce the price of Sayana® Press, funding for health worker training, and research to determine the acceptability, feasibility, and cost-effectiveness of self-injection.
In 2014 and 2015 CIFF continued to be a guarantor within the Implants Access Program, which has halved the procurement price for the Implanon® and Jadelle® contraceptive implants. Building on this support, in 2014 CIFF made a US$13.5 million three-year commitment to dramatically increase access to long-acting methods as part of comprehensive contraceptive choices for adolescents in Kenya. This investment aims to prevent over 60,000 unintended pregnancies among teenage girls, strengthen the evidence base of what works, and influence other family planning programs by demonstrating how a focus on adolescents can meaningfully contribute to the achievement of FP2020 goals.
