Ministers commit to increase investments in sustainable financing for family planning through landmark agreements with UNFPA

PATTAYA CITY, Thailand, 14 November 2022 — In a major step towards transforming the global financing landscape for family planning, eight ministers announced commitments today to increasing their countries’ domestic budget allocations for contraceptives. 

Four of these countries took the historic step of signing agreements, known as country Compacts, with UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency, in which they commit to sharing the cost of contraceptives with UNFPA from 2023 onwards. This represents a significant shift, as countries are increasingly moving towards financing their own family planning budget needs, rather than relying on donor contributions. 

The announcements were made at the Ministerial Roundtable on Sustainable Financing for Family Planning, hosted by UNFPA prior to the 2022 International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP) in Pattaya, Thailand.

"When women and girls have access to family planning, the ripple effects can transform, not only a single woman’s life, but an entire society,” said Diene Keita, UNFPA’s Deputy Executive Director of Programmes. “Sustainable financing for family planning can advance progress toward universal health coverage and uplift the rights and well-being of women, girls and communities. For this, UNFPA’s new Strategic Plan (2022-2025) sets out a bold new vision to transform the financing landscape for sexual and reproductive health working with countries."

Today four countries signed compact agreements with UNFPA; Chad, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Madagascar. UNFPA expects additional countries to sign similar compact agreements in the coming weeks.

The COVID-19 pandemic has diverted funding from essential family planning services and strained national health budgets, reinforcing the critical need to finance sexual and reproductive health services in times of crisis. A WHO survey of 105 countries found that 90% had health service disruptions due to the pandemic and 68% reported disruptions to family planning services.

Today, an estimated 257 million women want to avoid pregnancy but are not using safe and modern methods of contraception. From 2020-2030, the total investment needed to end the unmet need for family planning in 120 countries is estimated at US$ 68.5 billion. Donors are currently projected to provide US$ 8.6 billion of this financing between 2020 and 2030, meaning that an additional US$ 59.9 billion is needed to end unmet need for family planning. Total resources need to increase from around US$ 6.3 billion annually in 2020 to around US$ 10.8 billion annually by 2030.

The UNFPA Supplies Partnership Compact is an accountability mechanism supporting the new UNFPA Strategy for Family Planning (2022-2030), which sets out a bold new vision for the organization's work in family planning. The strategy sets out a roadmap for working with governments to gradually increase domestic financing for reproductive health commodities.

The four new signatory governments joined two that had previously signed Compacts: the Central African Republic and Guinea. 

 

Photographs:
Accompanying photographs will be made available for use here.

UNFPA media contacts:
Zina Alam, zinalam@unfpa.org
Eddie Wright, ewright@unfpa.org 

About UNFPA:
UNFPA is the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency. UNFPA's mission is to deliver a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person's potential is fulfilled. UNFPA calls for the realization of reproductive rights for all and supports access to a wide range of sexual and reproductive health services, including voluntary family planning, quality maternal health care and comprehensive sexuality education.