Family Planning 2020
All women and girls have the right to decide freely and for themselves whether and when to have children. And every woman and girl must have the ability to exercise that right, regardless of where she lives or what her economic circumstances are.
This is the principle that inspired the 2012 London Summit on Family Planning, when leaders from around the world committed to a visionary goal: expanding access to voluntary, rights-based family planning programs to enable an additional 120 million women and girls in the world’s poorest countries to use modern contraception by the year 2020.
This is also the principle that animates Family Planning 2020 (FP2020), the initiative created to catalyze and track progress toward that goal.
FP2020 works by bringing countries, donors, service providers, advocates, and other stakeholders together to collaborate on concrete measures that will expand contraceptive access and use. FP2020 builds on existing global development architecture and frameworks, and supports United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Every Woman Every Child Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health. FP2020 also coordinates with other global initiatives in the reproductive health sector, including the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH) and the Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition (RHSC).
Photo by: Prashant Panjiar/ Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
More than 80 formal commitments have been made to the FP2020 initiative since its launch in 2012. Governments, multilateral institutions, civil society organizations, foundations, and private sector partners are all collaborating to drive progress toward that original, ambitious 2020 goal. Because of these efforts, millions of women and girls—including the hardest to reach—are being empowered with the means to plan their own families and lives.
But there is another aspect to progress. FP2020 has emerged as a unique platform for the global family planning community: a shared space where donors and partners connect, where agencies collaborate to align their priorities, where countries identify needs and draw on the global knowledge base. These links are laying the groundwork for the world beyond 2020, as partners work together to shape strong, sustainable programs that will create lasting change.
The FP2020 initiative is also helping to deepen the understanding of what voluntary, rights-based family planning programs look like—and what it takes to deliver them. FP2020’s goal isn’t just to reach 120 million additional women and girls, but to reach them with programs that are thoroughly grounded in human rights and provide the highest quality of care.
By promoting cross-institutional collaboration, providing tailored support to countries, improving the quality and availability of family planning data, and creating the space for innovation and problem solving, the FP2020 partnership is working to ensure that the hope and the promise of the 2012 London Summit are fully realized.
FP2020 has emerged as a unique platform for the global family planning community: a shared space where donors and partners connect, where agencies collaborate to align their priorities, where countries identify needs and draw on the global knowledge base. These links are laying the groundwork for the world beyond 2020, as partners work together to shape strong, sustainable programs that will create lasting change.
