Africa Positioning Itself to Realize the Demographic Dividend as Leaders Push for Global Access to Family Planning

DAKAR, Senegal, 30 Nov. 2011 – Researchers and advocates will meet on the second day of this major family planning conference in Dakar to discuss critical findings and proven strategies to deliver family planning services. Their shared goal: to broadly increase contraceptive access to 215 million women worldwide and to transform development across the board.

Today’s conference theme will be the demographic dividend – the concept that health and social development, enabled by full access to contraception, are inextricably linked with strong economic growth. There are numerous examples of success in Asia, where declining fertility, spurred by rising contraceptive use, have led to increased education, improved health, and market-driven economic policies have allowed for significant income growth. To determine whether Africa is poised to follow suit, experts must examine countries with recent and remarkable achievements in family planning, such as Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi and Rwanda.

“Investing in family planning is one the most cost-effective strategies governments can implement. When women prevent unintended pregnancies, families can invest their resources in education, healthcare and family businesses.” said Dr. Amy Tsui, Director of the Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health, Professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and a lead conference organizer.

African finance and health ministers will convene today in a high-level closed-door meeting to discuss concrete steps to achieve the demographic dividend in their own countries. In addition, an official press conference will feature five experts speaking to the policy, research, donor, and program components necessary to increase access to family planning, and the economic benefits of doing so. Speakers will include:

· Hon. Haja Zainab Hawa Bangura, Minister of Health and Sanitation, Sierra Leone

· Dr. Amy Tsui, Director, Bill & Melinda Gates Institute of Population and Reproductive Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

· Ms. Monica Kerrigan, Deputy Director and Team Leader, Family Planning/Reproductive Health, Family Health Office, Global Health Program, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

· Dr. Scott Radloff, Director, Office of Population and Reproductive Health, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)

· Dr. Akinrinola Bankole, Director, International Research, Guttmacher Institute

· Ms. Jill Sheffield, President, Women Deliver

“We’ve made a lot of progress in putting maternal health on the global agenda; now we must call on leaders to put family planning on their to-do list. Every individual deserves this – women, men, and young people,” said Jill Sheffield, President and Founder of Women Deliver.

The challenges ahead are significant, but this conference presents enormous opportunity to profoundly impact global development for the next 50 years plus.

The ICFP is co-sponsored by more than 30 international organizations including USAID, DFID, AFD, UNFPA, WHO, European Commission, World Bank and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Accredited members of the press may register for ICFP in-person at Le Méridien, Dakar

For more information on ICFP, please visit: www.fpconference2011.org

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This press release is reprinted by Alanna Shaikh out of an obscure sense of guilt. It does not represent the opinions of Alanna Shaikh or any of her employers.