Behind the Numbers: The PRB blog on population, health, and the environment

by Jay Gribble, vice president, International Programs 

Over the past few days, I’ve had the opportunity to attend the International Family Planning Conference, held at the Speke Conference Center in Uganda.  This meeting has given me the chance to learn a lot about Uganda and get updated on what has been happening in the field.  While the selection of Uganda as the venue for this meeting of approximately 1,200 participants has focused the eyes of the world on the country’s need to better address the reproductive health of its women, Uganda is not alone in needing to increase its commitment—both political and financial. 

A few statistics about Uganda have really stuck in my head: Ugandan women have on average about 6 to 7 births per women, which is not much less that it was 25 years ago. Only about 18 percent of women of reproductive age use a modern family planning method and more than 40 percent of women don’t want to have any more children in the next two years – or at all – but are not using a family planning method.  Maternal death and disability robs the country of its women as well as hundreds of millions of dollars of lost productivity.  As seen in many countries, provider attitudes can undermine women’s interest and willingness to use family planning, and poor women are again at an inherent disadvantage because of they have limited access to services, poorer understanding of family planning methods, and hold on to traditional beliefs and values that undermine gender equity.

Though there is much work to be done to improve access to and use of family planning, this opportunity to bring together representatives of the global family planning movement has had some real benefits.  Over the couple of decades I’ve been working in this field, I don’t remember attending a meeting that has reenergized people with new evidence, new messages, and new acquaintances. Could the funds used to support the conference have been channeled into the field to support efforts? No doubt it could have been.  Yet just as people who attend a global AIDS conference look forward to learning the new science and being recharged to go back to work, this meeting has given those of us who work in family planning a new, broader perspective on what’s going on and what needs to be done. Through learning new information, sharing what PRB has to offer to the field, and  meeting new people from around the world, I am recharged—and I think many others are, too.  Will things change tomorrow?  Probably not.  But by bringing ministers of finance, health, and planning together; by exposing Ugandan parliamentarians to some of the lost opportunities to national health and development because of inadequate political and financial commitments; by sharing evidence-based research results to better figure out what else needs to be done—I am optimistic about getting things on track and moving forward.

As I leave Uganda and look back on what has happened over the past few days, I think the global family planning movement has been galvanized in a way that hasn’t happened before. Driving forward, the way will certainly have its bumps, but I am optimistic that we are on the right road.

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