MOBILIZING RESOURCES
TO DRIVE PROGRESS
The 2012 London Summit on Family Planning generated US$2.6 billion in financial commitments from donors, and served as a pivotal moment for the global community to declare that voluntary family planning is one of the best investments a country can make in its future. In fact, family planning is identified in the Global Investment Framework for Women and Children’s Health as the intervention with the greatest potential to reduce mortality and generate economic benefits: across 27 countries with very high unmet need for family planning, the economic rate of return from scaling up access to modern contraception from now until 2035 would exceed 8% of their GDP.[8]
This section presents key findings on how donor governments and the private sector are moving forward on their FP2020 commitments. It includes self-reported data and summaries from donors, along with external analyses by the Kaiser Family Foundation, PMNCH and Countdown 2015 Europe.[9]
GLOBAL TRENDS
Disbursements of family planning funds have increased substantially over the past year, and action is being accelerated toward the realization of FP2020 commitments.
The topline findings are:
- Donor governments provided US$1.3 billion for bilateral family planning programs (representing a 19% increase since 2012) and US$460 million in core contributions to UNFPA.[10]
- The US was the largest bilateral donor in 2013, providing US$585 million and accounting for almost half (46%) of total bilateral funding.[11]
- All eight commitment-making donor governments profiled by Kaiser Family Foundation have made progress toward fulfillment of their commitments.[12]
- European donor support to UNFPA increased by nearly 30% from 2009 to 2012, with the UK making a notable surge of investment in line with its commitment at the London Summit on Family Planning. UK support to UNFPA increased from €28 million in 2009 to €94 million in 2012 (an increase of 238%).[13]
These are very encouraging results, but there is still much work to be done. Urgent action must be taken to ensure that donor investments in family planning are not deprioritized upon changes in political leadership or shifts in the economic climate. Support must be given for efforts to monitor progress and hold governments accountable for their family planning commitments.
FINDINGS FROM THE PARTNERSHIP FOR MATERNAL, NEWBORN AND CHILD HEALTH (PMNCH)
The Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health (Global Strategy) was launched by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in September 2010, and focuses on accelerating progress toward MDGs 4 (child survival) and 5 (maternal health) in the world’s 49 poorest countries.
For the past four years, PMNCH has produced an annual report analyzing commitments to the Global Strategy and its implementation. The 2014 report focused exclusively on financial commitments made during the 2011–2015 time frame. Since there is overlap between commitments to the Global Strategy and to FP2020, PMNCH and FP2020 partnered to gather the data that would inform a financial analysis for the PMNCH 2014 Accountability Report. A subset of this analysis is relevant to FP2020 commitments:
- High-level events like the London Summit on Family Planning have proven effective for raising the profile of and mobilizing new commitments for important issues. The total number of commitment makers to the Global Strategy increased from 111 in September 2010 to 283 in December 2012, many of which can be attributed to the London Summit on Family Planning. Seventeen new stakeholders made commitments from January to May 2014, five of which were attributed to FP2020.
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From 2010 through the end of 2012, donor funding for family planning increased by 52% for the 49 Global Strategy countries.
- During that same period, donor funding for family planning increased by 47% for the 74 Countdown to 2015 countries, which is where more than 95% of all maternal and child deaths occur. Countdown to 2015 is a global initiative to accelerate progress in these countries toward MDGs 4 and 5.
8. Advancing social and economic development by investing in women’s and children’s health: a new Global Investment Framework, Karin Stenberg MSc, Henrik Axelson MSc, Peter Sheehan DPhil, Ian Anderson MSc, A Metin Gülmezoglu PhD, Marleen Temmerman PhD, Elizabeth Mason MSc, Howard S Friedman PhD, Prof Zulfiqar A Bhutta PhD, Joy E Lawn PhD, Kim Sweeny PhD, Jim Tulloch MBBS, Peter Hansen PhD, Mickey Chopra MD, Anuradha Gupta MBA, Joshua P Vogel MBBS, Mikael Ostergren MD, Bruce Rasmussen PhD, Carol Levin PhD, Colin Boyle MBA, Shyama Kuruvilla PhD, Marjorie Koblinsky PhD, Neff Walker PhD, Andres de Francisco MD, Nebojsa Novcic MPhil, Carole Presern PhD, Prof Dean Jamison PhD, Flavia Bustreo MD, on behalf of the Study Group for the Global Investment Framework for Women’s and Children’s Health, The Lancet, 12 April 2014 (Vol. 383, Issue 9925, Pages 1333-1354). doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(13)62231-X
9. Countdown 2015 Europe is a consortium of 15 leading European nongovernmental organizations working to ensure sexual and reproductive health and rights in developing countries. Countdown 2015 Europe tracks European donor spending on international family planning and works nationally with their own governments to increase support and accountability for family planning and reproductive health.
10. Kaiser Family Foundation
11. Kaiser Family Foundation
12 Kaiser Family Foundation
13. Countdown 2015 Europe
