State of World Population 2012 - Country Page List - UNFPA

1 Expand the reach of family
planning and improve services
by adopting a human
rights-based approach to health
Family planning must be grounded in
comprehensive sexual and reproductive
health programmes. A human rights-based
approach to family planning entails far
more than solely protecting the right to
access family planning services. The close
relationship between the right to choose
if, when and how many children to have
and other aspects of people’s sexual and
reproductive lives requires a broad approach
to services.
Governments should monitor for and
eliminate any use of incentives, targets
or fee structures that incentivize health
care providers to advocate for adoption of
specific methods, or for incentives to use
contraception. Service delivery itself must
meet human rights standards, and barriers to
use must be acknowledged as human rights
violations. Poor people with limited schooling
are most vulnerable to misunderstandings
and misinformation about how contraceptives
work and how their choices may be directed.
these constraints directly as part of their effort
to ensure the right to family planning.
Recognize that men and boys are pivotal to
realizing women’s right to family planning
and their own rights as well. As a human
right, family planning is relevant to every person
and all potential parents, both female and
male. Family planning is especially important
to women and their health and well-being,
and it is also of great interest and value to
men. The sexual and reproductive health field
has an opportunity to encourage men’s fuller
engagement in family planning. Men and
boys can help ensure women’s right to family
planning by being supportive partners, using
contraception, avoiding violence and promoting
gender equality. They have important roles to
play in transforming gender roles and norms in
ways that make it easier for everyone to achieve
their rights.
t
A bus stop in Mumbai,
India.
©Panos/Mark Henley
Go “beyond family planning” to address
the social and economic obstacles to
sexual and reproductive health. Women
and sometimes men must often overcome
entrenched gender norms in order to exercise
their right to family planning. Ensuring
women’s access to family planning should
be supported by activities that address their
social circumstances directly and enhance their
decision-making, mobility, autonomy and
access to resources. Programmes must address
THE STATE OF WORLD POPULATION 2012
99