State of World Population 2012 - Country Page List - UNFPA

4 Increase funding for family
planning and ensure it is
spent wisely
Governments of developing and donor
countries, international organizations and
foundations need to increase funding to
improve the quality and availability of
contraception, information and services for
all who want them, thus allowing everyone
to exercise their right to family planning.
Governments—donors and developing
countries alike—should also live up to the
funding commitments they made at the 1994
International Conference on Population and
Development to implement all aspects of the
Programme of Action.
About $4 billion is needed each year to
continue meeting the need of the 645 million
women who are currently using modern
methods of family planning in developing
countries. Improving the quality of services for
these women would add another $1.1 billion.
To meet the needs of women who would like
to delay pregnancies or end their childbearing
but are not currently using family planning, an
additional $3 billion would be needed each year.
Thus, to fully meet the current and unmet need
for family planning among women in developing
countries would cost $8.1 billion each year.
Developed countries must calculate their own
costs of realizing this right with all of its benefits
to their citizens and to national development.
In advocating for family planning,
governments, international organizations and
civil society should underscore the links with
other global initiatives, such as those to reduce
maternal mortality, to end child marriage, to
combat gender-based violence and to prevent
adolescent pregnancy. A number of specific
initiatives, including Women Deliver (focused
on women's and girls’ health and well-being),
Girls Not Brides (focused on ending child
marriage) and MenEngage (a global network
of organizations committed to reducing gender
inequality and improving the well-being of men,
women and children), are natural allies
in realizing the right to family planning.
Multisectoral investment and coordination
are essential to the efficient use of funds.
Informed choices about spacing, number and
timing of pregnancies are made more likely
where governments invest in a range of policies
and programmes, including efforts to eliminate
child marriage, promote girls’ education and
create employment opportunities for young
people (Greene, 2000 in Cohen and Burger,
2000). Because a comprehensive approach to
development, health, education and rights tends
to lead to lower fertility rates, governments must
also take a comprehensive approach that includes
better coordination and cooperation across
ministries. It also requires working with multiple
sectors at the community level. For example,
working jointly with educators and religious
leaders can help eliminate the gender and age
biases that make men question family planning,
undermine women’s rights and downplay or
ignore adolescent sexuality.
At a summit in London on 11 July 2012,
donor countries and foundations together
pledged $2.6 billion to make family planning
available to 120 million of the 222 million
women in developing countries with unmet
need by 2020. At the event, developing
countries together pledged $2 billion towards
this initiative. Stakeholders called the additional
funding “a start,” with the aim of eventually
mobilizing enough resources to fully eliminate
the unmet need in developing countries.
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