Global leaders called for higher investments in family planning

Global leaders have called for higher investments in family planning, highlighting that every human life is valuable and none should left behind, as the world begins the new global agenda of Sustainable Development Goals 2015-2030.

Melinda Gates, co-chairman US-based charity Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation said, there is no time to lose, so let’s start.

She said this in a video message at the opening of the fourth International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP) at Nusa Dua, Bali, on Sunday.

Foundation will invest an additional $120 million dollars in family planning programs over the next three years - a 25 percent increase on its current family planning funding, she added.

According to the World Health Organization, every day nearly 830 women die from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth, and 99 percent of all maternal deaths occur in developing countries.

Maternal mortality in Bangladesh is about 194 per 100,000 live births. Last year, an estimated stillbirth in Bangladesh was 83,100, while neonatal deaths were 74,400, according to The Lancet, a UK-based medical journal.  

Unintended pregnancy, early marriage, lack of reproductive and sexual education as well as services and contraceptive supplies are the major reasons behind the deaths, experts say.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation says every dollar spent on family planning can  save governments up to 6 dollars that can be spent on improving health, housing, water, sanitation, and other public services.

However, more than 220 million women in developing countries who don’t want to get pregnant lack access to contraceptives and voluntary family planning information and services, according to ICFC statement.

Less than 20 percent of women in Sub-Saharan Africa and barely one-third of women in South Asia use modern contraceptives. In 2012, an estimated 80 million women in developing countries had an unintended pregnancy; of those women, at least one in four resorted to an unsafe abortion.

In Bangladesh, official data shows, 65 percent of girls are married before the age of 18. Also, around 40 percent couples do not use contraceptives in Bangladesh.

“Three years ago, the global community set an ambitious goal. More than that, we made a promise. A promise to 120 million women and girls that by 2020 they would have access to family planning services and contraceptives if they wanted it,” stated Melinda Gates.

“Since we made that promise, millions of unintended pregnancies have been avoided and thousands of lives saved. But the hard truth is that to keep it, we must do more, and we must act now.”

"Family planning is about women`s right and their capacity to take decisions about their health and well-being contributing to the objectives of FP2020,” said Dr Babatunde Osotimehin, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of UNFPA.

“It is a most significant investment to promote human capital development, combat poverty and harness a demographic dividend thus contributing to equitable and sustainable economic development within the context of the Sustainable Development Goals," he said.

Indonesian president Jokowi Widodo said insisted that stigma and discrimination against women seeking family planning services must end and that family planning education must become a priority in Indonesia, the world’s fourth largest populated country with over 250 million populations.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the National Population and Family Planning Board of Indonesia (BKKBN) organized the event styled “Global Commitments, Local Actions.”

Around 3000 leaders, UN officials, academics, NGOs including from Bangladesh are attending the 5-day conference.