PSN on the New Security Beat Blog: Rio+20 should re-identify family planning as a priority

25 April 2012

Source: Woodrow Wilson Center’s Environmental Change and Security Programme (ECSP)

In a video interview with the Woodrow Wilson Centre, PSN's Karen Newman speaks about her hopes for the forthcoming Rio+20 conference which marks the 20 year anniversary of the UN Earth Summit.  

Speaking on behalf of the Population and Climate Change Alliance (PCCA), the interview with the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Environmental Change and Security Programme (ECSP) was recorded during the Planet Under Pressure conference last month. A video of the interview and an ECSP blog is available on the Woodrow Wilson Center website.

Extracts from the ECSP blog and interview with Karen:

Energizing people around family planning can be difficult, "because donors, like everyone else, like something that’s new," said Karen Newman, coordinator for the UK-based Population and Sustainability Network. "There’s nothing new about family planning. The technology is safe, effective, it’s acceptable, and it works. We just need a lot more of it out there to be accessible to a lot more people."

"What we want is increased investment in voluntary family planning services that respect and protect rights… and I think that Rio represents a fabulous opportunity for us to re-identify family planning as a core development priority."

Newman also hopes the Rio conference will lead to "an integrated look at sustainable development, so that… it isn’t just about the green economy and institutional framework, it’s looking at sustainable development in the round."

"What I want to see is a really sophisticated look at sustainable development, coming up with sustainable development goals in a world that makes sense of seven billion, where there are still millions of women without access to the family planning services that we take for granted," said Newman, "and taking that concept to the job of developing the post-MDG framework that will frame development for the next 20 years."

The full blog and interview is available on the Woodrow Wilson Center website, in addition to a second interview and blog where Karen focuses on the complex but critical links between population dynamics and sustainable development.

PSN would like to express its thanks to the Woodrow Wilson Center Environmental Change and Security Program.