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Family Planning Summit 2017

Family Planning Summit 2017

What is the Family Planning Summit?

The one-day high level Summit, held in London on 11 July 2017, aimed to build on the progress made in many countries since the London Summit on Family Planning in 2012. Governments, donors, the private sector and civil society gathered together to make more ambitious and substantial commitments to achieve the goals of FP2020 – a global partnership that supports the rights of women and girls to decide, freely, and for themselves, whether, when, and how many children they want to have.

Read our verdict on the Summit

Why was it important?

Voluntary family planning helps women take control over decisions about when and how many children to have. It saves lives and has the power to boost the development of entire countries. Read more in the Family Planning Summit concept note. The Summit focused on:

  • innovative financial solutions to ensure quality contraceptive options are available around the world
  • strengthening supply chains so that women have access to and can choose a method that best meets their needs
  • empowering young people to have access to contraceptives and to be able to make their own choices
  • reaching the hardest to reach, especially women experiencing humanitarian crises or facing other socio-cultural barriers

Read CARE’s key messages and policy asks (download 2-page PDF)

CARE advocated in particular for:

Read more

Sex doesn’t stop during emergencies – CARE’s April Houston outlines the horrific circumstances facing women and girls in emergency settings, and what is being done about it

Family planning saves lives and promotes resilience in humanitarian contexts – this report published by the International Rescue Committee, CARE, Save the Children and the Women’s Refugee Commission On behalf of the the Inter-agency Working Group for Reproductive Health in Crises (IAWG) includes collaborative solutions and actions that need to be taken by countries, implementing agencies, and donors

Family planning in emergencies – why is it so crucial, and how can it be truly life-saving?

Let’s accelerate progress and fill key gaps – what CARE has done so far, and what we are going to do to achieve even more

CARE’s approach to Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights – an overview of our programme approach to SRHR

Designing for impact at scale – CARE’s 2016 report on progress towards our objective of supporting 100 million women and girls to exercise their rights to sexual, reproductive and maternal health and a life free from violence by 2020

Supporting access to family planning and post-abortion care in emergencies – a summary of CARE’s SAFPAC project in Chad, DRC and Pakistan

CARE’s family planning wiki – our online Sexual and Reproductive Health & Rights knowledge centre

Blogs See all

What does Women’s Economic Justice mean to you? An interview with Sidonie Adjiwa
As CARE gets ready to launch its new Women’s Economic Justice strategy, we’re sharing some diverse perspectives on why women’s economic justice matters and what’s needed to achieve it. As…
What does Women’s Economic Justice mean to you? An interview with Shanti Uprety
As CARE gets ready to launch its new Women’s Economic Justice strategy, we’re sharing some diverse perspectives on why women’s economic justice matters and what’s needed to achieve it. Shanti…
What does Women’s Economic Justice mean to you? An interview with Linda Scott
As CARE gets ready to launch its new Women’s Economic Justice strategy, we’re sharing some diverse perspectives on why women’s economic justice matters and what’s needed to achieve it. Linda…
Five principles for powerful partnerships: where profit meets social impact
A catalytic collaboration in Vietnam is stimulating business growth for women entrepreneurs by challenging misconceptions and improving access to finance, networks and critical support services. Here we share five key…

Publications See all

Women on the Move Global Report 2021: Women's Collective Voice
Women on the Move (WOM) is a CARE regional strategy to mobilize existing savings groups (previously referred to as Village Savings & Loan Associations, or VSLA) in West Africa to…
Partnership in CARE
CARE's Partnership Paper provides a unified CARE International definition of partnership and proposes an overarching framework and recommendations to enable CARE to partner with new and diverse organisations in new and diverse…
Generation Equality Forum: CARE commitments
As a leader in the Generation Equality Forum (GEF), CARE is making bold commitments to invest $100 million in supporting 10 million women and girls as leaders through savings and solidarity…
International Development Committee Inquiry into the progress the Government has made at putting climate change at the centre of aid policy: Written evidence by CARE International UK
CARE International UK’s submission to the International Development Committee Inquiry argues that, in order to deliver on its commitments to increase climate finance, ensure 50% is directed for adaptation, and…

Video

 CARE not only expands access to sexual and reproductive health services, but we fight for the laws that protect them — and the women they save. Case in point: Dr Jimmy in Chad.

You might also be interested in...

Family planning services are desperately needed in conflicts and disasters – Huffington Post blog by Hana Pauls, a midwife on the Channel 4 TV series One Born Every Minute, reflecting on her conversation with Mary Poni Daniel, a midwife in South Sudan

Family planning: It’s everyone’s business – Business Fights Poverty blog by Alice Allan (CARE International UK) about the role of the private sector and harnessing the power of supply chains to ensure no one is left behind without access to family planning

Contraception is a human right, not a tool for population control – New Statesman blog by Christine Galavotti (CARE USA) and Casey Williams arguing that protecting reproductive rights is about helping women assume the control they are entitled to

In the world’s worst crises, access to sexual and reproductive health and rights is paramount – blog by Gillian Barth (CARE Canada) and Sandeep Prasad on OpenCanada.org

Adding It Up: Investing in contraception and maternal and newborn health – a study by the Guttmacher Institute (published 29 June 2017) which finds that 214 million women in developing countries want to avoid pregnancy but are not using a modern method of contraception

On World Refugee Day, let’s talk about family planning – FP2020 Director Beth Schlachter on the need for access to comprehensive reproductive health services for all women and girls affected by crisis

Plans for major family planning summit take shape – a devex blog by Sophie Edwards about the Summit’s aims and the potential impact of the US government’s reinstatement of the “global gag rule”

Contraceptives a game changer for crisis-affected women in northern Nigeria – article on UNFPA website

To reach 2020 goals, the London Summit on Family Planning cannot afford to leave refugees behind – blog by Rita Nehme of the International Rescue Committee

 

Resources and links

Family Planning 2020 website

Momentum at the Midpoint 2015-16 reviewing progress towards the FP2020 goal of enabling 120 million additional women and girls to use contraceptives by 2020

Family Planning Summit website

Sustainable Development Goal 3 which aims to ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health-care services by 2030

IAWG – Inter-Agency Working Group on Reproductive Health in Crises website

Minimum Initial Service Package (MISP) on reproductive health in emergencies – read more on the UNFPA website and on the IAWG website

In depth