UNITED NATIONS, Sep 26 (IPS) – Following the Summit of the Future and on the sidelines of the United Nations High-Level Meeting Week, governments and philanthropies pledged to spend at least $350 million to promote family planning, sexual and reproductive health and supplies at national and global levels. As set out in the recently adopted Pact for the Future, finding new international financing models is critical to solving the problems facing the world today. The decision to press ahead is a testament to the commitment to ongoing health challenges.
On September 24, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Family Planning 2030 (FP2030) and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) invited prominent figures from the private, development and public sectors to build political will for sustainable investments in sexual and reproductive health (SRH).
“Investing in reproductive health resources is a ‘best buy’ for development, empowering women, improving maternal and newborn health and boosting the economy,” said Dr. Natalia Kanem, UNFPA Executive Director.
Speaking about UNFPA’s partnerships with the co-organizers, Kanem noted, “What we do is transform lives. The life of a girl in her community, the life of an adolescent in her city, and empowering communities and families to seize and take control of their future.”
“So much of our world has been made possible by family planning,” said Dr. Samukeliso Dube, Executive Director of FP2030. “By empowering more women to shape their lives and futures, family planning has helped women complete their education, enter the workforce, rise to leadership positions and achieve their dreams.”
Donor countries including the UK, Canada, Norway and Spain announced commitments to the UNFPA Supplies Partnership, which provides modern contraceptives and maternal health supplies to women and girls in low-income countries. Through the partnership, UNFPA has helped prevent 1.6 million child deaths, 254,000 maternal deaths and 2.6 million unsafe abortions. Contributions to UNFPA could potentially save up to 9,000 women and girls worldwide. As Anneliese Dodds, the UK Minister for Development and Women and Inequalities, noted, investing in SRH was “critical to ensuring that women have the power.”
Speakers representing their countries’ governments pledged their support through domestic financial investment. For example, the governments of Madagascar, Nepal and the Kyrgyz Republic announced domestic financial commitments that would invest in SRH services in their countries.
Madagascar announced a contribution of $15 million to purchase health supplies through UNFPA. Their Minister of Health, Zely Arivelo Randriamanantany, added that their goal was to increase access to contraceptives by more than 50 percent. Arzu Rana Deube, Nepal’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, announced the government’s commitment of $600,000 to purchase quality contraceptives. Renat Mavlyanbai Uulu, Advisor to the Minister of Health of the Kyrgyz Republic, announced a commitment of $119,000 in domestic funding for family planning supplies.
As UNFPA Chief of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Ayman Abdelmohsen told IPS, the domestic funding commitments are significant; it shows that these governments will prioritise SRH in “allocations from their own resources… and budgetary allocations” without relying on foreign donors. It is in line with UNFPA’s compact agreements with 44 countries, which will see countries build their capacity to provide comprehensive reproductive health through their own resources.
Despite the projected growth in access to contraception and maternal health by 2030, the current financing gap is still far off, currently at least $1.5 billion in the world’s poorest countries.
During the event, speakers emphasized the ‘transformative’ power of SRH in countries. That investing in SRH is investing in girls’ and women’s agency over health and life choices. By ensuring women’s sexual and reproductive health, it pays off in protecting families and communities. In terms of financing, every dollar spent on family planning can yield more than $8 in benefits for families and societies.
Investing in health also goes to the practitioners within the sector. As Feri Anita Wijayanti, a registered midwife from Indonesia, explained to the panel, many communities rely on the expertise of midwives, whose responsibilities “go beyond delivering babies” because they are on the front lines addressing other health issues.
“Every second in every corner of the world, midwives are working tirelessly to protect the lives of women and babies and to provide sexual and reproductive health services,” she said. Midwives have the power to save an estimated 4.3 million lives a year by 2025. We urge you to invest in us, believe in the transformative power of midwives and start investing in sexual and reproductive health.”
The pledges by countries and the private sector are a step forward in closing the significant financing gap. They come at a time when senior leadership within the UN, namely the Secretary-General, has called on countries to explore innovative and sustainable financing to address global inequalities. The pledges made at this event demonstrate that despite the challenges facing SRH, there is political will to support this care for all and that it can be mobilized to ensure this care.
IPS News UN Office
© Inter Press Service (2024) — All rights reservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service
