Uganda Hosts Largest Family Planning Conference
18 November 2009
Source: UNFPA website; Bloomberg pres release
An international meeting focusing on research and best practices in family planning opened in Kampala on 15 November, in an attempt towards achieving United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for developing countries.
The international conference has been co-sponsored by The Bill and Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Makerere University's School of Public Health, and the Implementing Best Practices Initiative along with other international and national partners.
Keynote speakers and presenters include the First Lady of Uganda, Janet Kataha Museveni, and Dr. Stephen Mallinga, Uganda's Minister of Health, as well as dignitaries from Brazil and several African nations. Stewards of the conference include representatives from WHO, World Bank, USAID, UNFPA, Family Health International, the Gates and Packard Foundations, the Bloomberg School and many other organizations. Presentations will cover groundbreaking research topics including contraceptive technology and family planning issues such as integrating contraception and HIV prevention; male options for family planning; and contraceptive commodity security.
Kampala, Uganda, November 2, 2009: The largest international conference on family planning will bring together more than 1,000 leading policymakers, researchers, academics and health professionals from 59 countries to exchange the latest scientific findings and program experiences. Co-sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Makerere University School of Public Health, the International Conference on Family Planning: Research and Best Practices is supported by more than 30 organizations that, together with the Implementing Best Practices Initiative, will see that new knowledge is transformed into action to improve the health and wealth of families and communities everywhere. The Conference will be held in Kampala from November 15 to 18, 2009.
Effective family planning programs can make a powerful contribution to breaking the cycle of poverty and achieving the Millennium Development Goals established by the United Nations. Family planning was declared "one of the most cost-effective development investments" at last month's High-Level Meeting on Maternal Health in Addis Ababa. Child spacing can reduce the economic burden on poor families and allow parents to invest more in each child's care and schooling, thereby improving family nutrition, education levels and living standards.
Worldwide, 200 million women seek to prevent an unplanned pregnancy but are not using contraception. The United Nations estimates that by 2050 contraceptive demand will grow by 40 percent as record numbers of young people enter the prime reproductive ages. Despite decades of research and programmatic experience with successful family planning programs, global attention to this health intervention has dramatically declined in the past 15 years. This has resulted in less government support and funding for family planning programs, risking couples' ability to time and space their births to their families' benefit. At the International Conference on Family Planning participants will re-affirm the importance of family planning in the context of human development and re-commit to the vision and realization of universal access to family planning.
At the conference, keynote speakers and presenters will include the First Lady of Uganda, Janet Kataha Museveni, and Dr. Stephen Mallinga, Uganda's Minister of Health, as well as dignitaries from Brazil and several African nations including Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal and Zambia. Stewards of the conference include representatives from WHO, World Bank, USAID, UNFPA, Family Health International, the Gates and Packard Foundations, and many other organizations, in addition to the Bloomberg School. Presentations will cover groundbreaking research topics including contraceptive technology and family planning issues such as integrating contraception and HIV prevention; male options for family planning; and contraceptive commodity security.
For more information on the International Conference on Family Planning please visit www.fpconference2009.org