Gates Foundation awards $28M in grants to Bloomberg School for Advance Family Planning

The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has received $28 million in grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to continue and expand the Advance Family Planning advocacy initiative within the Bloomberg School's Bill & Melinda Gates Institute on Population and Reproductive Health.

Advance Family Planning aims to increase resources and political commitment for quality family planning programs, as part of the July 2012 London Summit on Family Planning (now known as FP2020). The vision of the summit was to enable more women and girls in some of the world's poorest countries to use contraceptive information, services and supplies, without coercion or discrimination, by 2020.

Working with many partners over the next five years (2012-17), Advance Family Planning aims to improve access to and use of family planning services, information and supplies by increasing funds, decreasing policy barriers and increasing the importance of family planning at global, regional, national and sub-national levels. The initiative will focus on nine countries: India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Senegal, Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya.

"Leaders around the world increasingly recognize how important family planning is to health, development and human rights. Combined with the committed leadership of Melinda Gates and [UK Prime Minister] David Cameron who spearheaded FP2020, we have the potential to radically transform the lives and wellbeing of women and families. Advance Family Planning has demonstrated that effective, collaborative advocacy is at the heart of realizing that potential," said Duff Gillespie, PhD, principal investigator and a professor with the Bloomberg School's Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health. "We are grateful for the support of all three foundations and those leaders who have committed to invest in family planning policies and programs as part of FP2020."

"The Bloomberg School of Public Health is pleased to receive support for Advance Family Planning. Through the leadership of our faculty and colleagues, this innovative initiative is already paving the way for new ways to address global family planning needs," said Michael J. Klag, MD, SPH '87 (MPH), dean of the Bloomberg School.