DONORS PLEDGE $2.6B FOR BETTER ACCESS TO CONTRACEPTIVES

Condoms in different colors. The London Summit

on Family Planning secured $2.6 billion in foreign aid

commitments. Photo by: Shawn Latta / CC BY-NC-SA

A controversial donors’ conference on family planning has exceeded its target amount of pledges for the provision of contraception information and supplies to 120 million women by 2020.

The London Summit on Family Planning secured $2.6 billion in foreign aid commitments — $3 million more than its initial target of $2.3 billion. The summit was held July 11 to coincide with World Population Day, which this year focuses on family planning and reproductive health services. 

The U.K. Department for International Development, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, U.N. Population Fund and their partners have estimated that providing contraceptives to an additional 120 million women, on top of current beneficiaries, by 2020 will require $4.3 billion — an amount to be covered by both donors and recipient countries.

Here are some of the commitments key donors made at the summit:

• Australia: 58 million Australian dollars ($59.3 million) to be disbursed over five years.
• Gates Foundation: Double contribution to $140 million a year for eight years.
• Denmark: $13 million over eight years.
• Germany: €100 million ($122.3 million) over four years as part of a €400 million contribution to global reproductive health and family planning efforts.
• United Kingdom: 516 million pounds ($800 million) over eight years, to be drawn from the existing aid budget. This is on top of the U.K.’s pledge to double its annual contribution to worldwide family planning services from 90 billion pounds to 180 billion pounds every year.

UNFPA, for its part, pledged to increase the percentage of its core budget dedicated to family planning and reproductive services. This means the agency will spend at least $54 million annually from 2013-19 on family planning.

At the London summit, which was hounded by criticism from Catholic bloggers and anti-abortion groups, developing countries pledged to meet their $2 billion share of the required funding for the additional 120 million women. Leaders also committed to address policy and other institutional or legal barriers to greater access to modern contraception methods.

Aside from these financial pledges and commitments from developing countries, the London summit saw the launch of initiatives that support its goal. Among these is an innovative partnership of DfID, U.S. Agency for International Development, UNFPA, Gates Foundation, Pfizer and nongovernmental organization PATH to distribute 12 million doses of an affordable injectable to 3 million women in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. The partners aim to accomplish this by 2013.

DEVEX