Welcome to the Family Planning International E-newsletter, providing you with the latest news and updates on global population and development issues, as well as what we have been up to.

New project targeting young women in the Solomon Islands

Family Planning International’s programme coordinator, Diane Ryan, was in the Solomon Islands during July to set up a new project targeting young unemployed pregnant women in the capital, Honiara. The project involves providing the young women with education, livelihood skills and other life skills, including education about sexual and reproductive health. Teenage pregnancy rates in the Solomon Islands are among the highest in the world, and when young women fall pregnant there, they find that they have very few educational and work opportunities. The purpose of our new project is to improve the education disparities experienced by young women in the Solomon Islands.

Family Planning International at Women Deliver

Family Planning International’s Director of International Development, Sumi Subramaniam attended the much anticipated global conference, Women Deliver, in June in Washington DC. The conference attracted over 3,000 participants from 146 countries. The theme of the conference was ‘Delivering Solutions for Girls and Women’ with the aim to make maternal and reproductive health a global priority. Speakers included Melinda Gates, the Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-Moon and Helen Clark.

Advocating for reproductive health supplies

Family Panning International (FPI) has been working with two IPPF Member Associations, Tonga Family Health Association and Vanuatu Family Health Association, to help develop their advocacy skills so that they can confidently advocate at the national level on reproductive health supply issues in their respective countries. FPI has been helping both Family Health Associations to identify a reproductive health supply issue that is of priority to them and to develop an advocacy plan to address their chosen issue. The next step will be putting those plans into action. Family Planning International will continue to work closely with them to provide technical assistance to put their advocacy action plans into practice. Having good advocacy skills is important for influencing policy decisions and FPI values being able to support others to have strong and effective advocacy approaches.

Microbicide gel effective in fight against HIV

At the XVIII International AIDS Conference in Vienna, Austria, in July, researchers shared a new scientific breakthrough in the fight against HIV. The Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa announced that vaginal microbicide gel containing 1% of the AIDS drug tenofovir has been found to reduce the risk of women becoming infected with HIV during sex by 39%, and reduces the risk of women contracting genital herpes by 51%. If further research shows similar results, the microbicide gel could provide women with a defence against becoming infected with HIV from a sexual partner who refuses to use a condom.  

UN Women is born

A new gender equality entity at the United Nations is being established as a result of a United Nations General Assembly resolution agreed to on 30^th June. The new entity will be called UN Women and will merge four UN’s agencies, namely the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW), the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues, and the UN International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (UN-INSTRAW). “By bringing together four parts of the UN system dedicated to women’s issues, Member States have created a much stronger voice for women and for gender equality at the global level,” said the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon. Check out their new website http://www.unwomen.org/

Global Commission on HIV and the Law

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) with support from the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) launched the Global Commission on HIV and the Law in June to examine how legal environments impact on efforts to prevent, manage and treat HIV and AIDS. Experts have been appointed to the commission from around the world, including New Zealand Labour MP Charles Chauvel and Community Development Minister from Papua New Guinea, Dame Carol Kidu.

Global Efforts to Address Maternal Health

There has been great momentum around the world to take action to tackle maternal mortality so far in 2010. The Gates Foundation announced at Women Deliver that they will invest US$1.5 billion over the next five years for maternal and child health, family planning and nutrition programmes. Maternal and child health was a top priority at the G8 and G20 Summits this year, and the G8 countries pledged an additional US$5 billion for maternal and child health. The Obama administration’s Global Health Initiative is putting US$63 billion over the next six years towards helping strengthen health systems, with a focus on improving maternal and child health through a woman-and-girl-centred approach. And Britain’s new International Development Secretary has announced that “tackling the tragic scale of maternal and child deaths will be a key priority for the new government”. Finally, even the private sector have recognized the importance of investing in women. Major private sector corporations globally have programmes addressing women and girls’ health, including Exxon Mobil, GAP, Nike, Avon and Goldman Sachs.

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