UNITED NATIONS, Sept 26 (IPS) – Following the sidelines of the Future Summit and UN High-Level Meeting Week, governments and charities have pledged at least $350 million to strengthen family planning, sexual and reproductive health and provision at national and global levels. As outlined in the newly adopted Future Agreement, exploring new international financial models is critical to addressing the challenges facing the world today. The decision to commit to the future is a testament to the commitment to ongoing health issues.
On September 24, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Family Planning 2030 (FP2030), and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) brought together prominent figures from the private, development, and government sectors to mobilize political will to address sustainable investment in sexual and reproductive health (SRH).
“Investing in reproductive health products is a ‘best buy’ for development, women’s empowerment, improved maternal and newborn health outcomes, and economic revitalization,” said Dr. Natalia Kanem, UNFPA’s Executive Director.
Speaking about the partnership between UNFPA and the co-organizers, Kanem said, “What we are doing is changing lives. It’s about transforming the lives of girls in communities, the lives of youth living in cities, and empowering communities and families to leverage and take control of their future.”
“Family planning has made so much of our world possible,” said Dr. Samukeliso Dube, Executive Director of FP2030. “Family planning has helped more women shape their lives and their futures, helping them complete their education, enter the workforce, advance to leadership positions, and achieve their dreams.”
Donors such as the UK, Canada, Norway and Spain have pledged to the UNFPA Supplies Partnership, which provides modern contraceptives and maternal health supplies to women and girls in low-income countries. Through this partnership, UNFPA has helped prevent 1.6 million child deaths, 254,000 maternal deaths and 2.6 million unsafe abortions. Donations to UNFPA have the potential to save up to 9,000 women and girls worldwide. As Anneliese Dodds, the UK’s Minister for Development and Gender Inequalities, put it, investing in SRH “has been crucial to empowering women.”
Speakers representing governments pledged support through domestic financial investment. For example, the governments of Madagascar, Nepal and the Kyrgyz Republic announced domestic financial commitments to invest in SRH services in their countries.
Madagascar announced that it would donate $15 million to UNFPA to procure health supplies. Their Minister of Public Health, Zely Arivelo Randriamanantany, added that their goal is to increase access to contraceptives by more than 50 percent. Nepal’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arzu Rana Deube, announced that the government would donate $600,000 to purchase high-quality contraceptives. The Kyrgyz Republic’s Minister of Health, Renat Mavlyanbai Uulu, announced that the country would donate $119,000 to domestic resources for family planning products.
As Ayman Abdelmohsen, UNFPA’s head of sexual and reproductive health and rights, told IPS, the commitment to domestic financing is significant, showing that these governments will prioritize SRH rather than rely on foreign donors when “allocating from their own resources… and allocating budgets.” This is in line with UNFPA’s agreements with 44 countries, which will build the capacity of countries to provide comprehensive reproductive health through their own resources.
While access to contraception and maternal health are projected to increase by 2030, the current funding gap still leaves a long way to go. The gap currently stands at at least $1.5 billion in the world’s poorest countries.
Throughout the event, speakers emphasized the ‘transformative’ power of SRH in the country. Investing in SRH is investing in girls and women’s agency over their health and life choices. By ensuring women’s sexual and reproductive health, it helps protect families and communities. In terms of funding, every dollar spent on family planning can bring more than $8 in benefits to families and society.
Investments in health also flow to practitioners in the field. As Indonesian licensed midwife Peri Anita Wijayanti explained to the panel, many communities rely on the expertise of midwives, whose responsibilities extend “beyond delivering babies” and who are on the front lines of addressing other health issues.
“In every corner of the world, midwives are working tirelessly to protect the lives of women and babies and provide sexual and reproductive health services,” she said. “Midwives have the power to save an estimated 4.3 million lives each year by 2025. We urge you to invest in us, to believe in the transformative power of midwives, and to start by investing in sexual and reproductive health.”
The commitments made by countries and the private sector go a step further in bridging the significant funding gap. This comes at a time when the UN’s senior leadership, the Secretary-General, has called on countries to find innovative and sustainable financing to address global inequalities. The commitments made at this event demonstrate that despite the challenges to SRH, there is political will to support it and that it can be mobilized to ensure this care for all.
IPS News UN Secretariat
© Inter Press Service (2024) — All rights reservedOriginal Source: Inter Press Service
