Family planning summit commits to trebling the number of women and girls’ lives saved by 2020

At the London Summit on Family Planning, IPPF - the world’s foremost sexual and reproductive health and rights organization - has made an unprecedented commitment to treble the number of women’s and girls’ lives saved each year by 2020.

By 2020, IPPF’s family planning services alone will have saved the lives of 54,000 women and girls, averted 46.4 million unintended pregnancies and prevented 12.4 million unsafe abortions.

Additionally IPPF has promised to expand its existing network of 64,000 clinics and community-based outlets to ensure it meets the needs of the poor and vulnerable. It will also triple its services to young people by 2020, and make commodities more affordable.

This commitment was one of a series of bold pledges made by IPPF at the London Summit on Family Planning launched by The UK Government and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in partnership with UNFPA, and national governments on the 11th July. The Summit’s aim is to make affordable, lifesaving contraceptive information, services and supplies available to an additional 120 million women and girls in the world’s poorest countries by 2020. It also aims to prevent over 200,000 dying in pregnancy and childbirth.

Vice co-chair of the Summit’s Stakeholder Group, and IPPF Director-General, Tewodros Melesse said, “The Summit provides us with focus and priority to fast track achievement by 2020, and to ensure sexual and reproductive health and rights have an undisputed place in the post- 2015 development agenda.

“We are strongly committed to a rights-based approach. As Summit convenors make their commitments, we must do all we can to enable women and girls to exercise their fundamental reproductive rights – that means providing voluntary family planning services and accurate information that allow for informed decisions, and are respectful of individual choices.

“Commitments demand resources. I urge governments to show their unequivocal support for family planning as part of a comprehensive approach to saving the lives of women and their families.”

Additionally by 2020 IPPF has pledged to:

• triple its sexual and reproductive health services, providing a comprehensive package of rights-based services including a range of contraceptive methods and safe abortion.
• provide 1.5 billion sexual and reproductive health services. 
• IPPF will establish technical knowledge centres to train staff from government facilities and community groups to extend the reach of family planning services.
• pioneer, with help of partners, a compendium of robust family planning, sexual, reproductive, maternal and child health, and HIV indicators.
• scale up its advocacy by establishing civil society networks in the poorest countries to hold governments accountable for providing services for women and girls; committing financial resources; ensuring a range of contraceptives are included on the National Essential Medicines List.