Join FP2020 by Making a Commitment

In August 2015, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation shared an update on progress in achieving its commitments to FP2020.

As the Packard Foundation continues its collective push toward FP2020 and other long-term goals, more women and girls around the world are gaining access to sexual and reproductive health care. So far, the program has learned that focusing on access alone is not enough–quality matters. Greater progress will be made by securing everyone’s right to quality care that’s centered around women’s lives and goals. This will help more women and girls secure knowledge, exercise their choices, shape their own destinies–and contribute to measurable progress on a whole range of public health issues.

The foundation supports courageous, visionary providers, advocates and researchers working to advance everyone’s right to quality sexual and reproductive health care. Grantees provide access to comprehensive information, services, and skills that help women and girls – and the men and boys in their lives–secure their right to the quality sexual and reproductive health care they want, need and deserve.

Quality sexual and reproductive health care is woman-centered. It means:

• She understands her body and feels empowered to keep herself healthy with accurate, unbiased information about sexuality and reproductive health.
• She gets care that is centered around her life and goals–and decides whether and when to have children, chooses from a full range of contraceptive options, and can obtain safe and legal abortion follow-up care without stigma or interference.
• She shapes her own destiny–making decisions about her health and wellbeing that empower her at home, at the clinic, and in the community.

Working with young women and men, families, communities, and government leaders, the foundation’s grantee partners are making meaningful, measurable progress for people facing the greatest obstacles to reproductive health and rights through the following activities: 

• Quality and rights: The foundation’s Global Family Planning portfolio funds initiatives to improve measurement, develop and scale up innovations, and improve policies and programs that prioritize quality and rights. The foundation also support initiatives to end early marriage, and support programs and research to build evidence on sexual and reproductive health services for youth.

• Quality Innovation Challenge: During the 2013 International Conference on Family Planning in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the Foundation’s Population and Reproductive Health program launched a global challenge to support innovations that improve quality in reproductive health care. Following a competitive selection process, nine organizations were awarded grants of up to $100,000 to implement their innovations. A second Quality Innovation Challenge will be held at the 2015 International Conference on Family Planning in Nusa Dua, Indonesia.

• Measuring Quality: In 2014, the foundation partnered with the Population Council to bring field-level attention to issues of measurement in quality. The work commenced with a convening of stakeholders from across the measurement community, including donors, implementing partners, and key global measurement organizations. In addition, support of the Global Early Adolescent Study has highlighted the need for better information on young adolescents within the donor and research communities.

• Advocating for Quality: In 2014, the foundation supported the launch of QUEST (Quality Upheld: Every Service Every Time), a five-year initiative in partnership with Population Action International to improve quality and fulfill rights within family planning service delivery settings by advocating for improvements in health, regulatory, and legal systems in Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Myanmar, and Pakistan.

• Quality in South Asia: The Foundation’s South Asia subprogram makes deep investments in Bihar, India with targeted investments in Uttar Pradesh, Karachi in Pakistan, and select states of Myanmar. In India, the program continues to improve access to quality services in the public and private sectors, increase demand and awareness of family planning, and further develop innovative approaches to deliver comprehensive sexuality education (CSE). In Myanmar, the program aims to accelerate access to family planning through research, strategic advocacy, and technical assistance. At the regional level, the program supports the development of youth leadership for advancing commitment to the sexual and reproductive health and rights of young people.

• Innovations in Sexuality and Education in South Asia: In India, grantee partner CorStone has demonstrated the importance of adopting a mental health approach to comprehensive sexual education (CSE) by integrating a resilience training component to existing sexuality education programs in Bihar. After a two-year process, the Center for Catalyzing Change launched a first of its kind CSE program for middle school students in Jharkhand. In Pakistan, grantees Aahung, Rutgers World Population Fund, and Indus Resource Centre continue to forge stronger relationships with institutions and communities to deliver quality CSE.

• Family Planning Quality and Access in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Sub-Saharan Africa subprogram seeks to expand access to quality family planning and reproductive health services, including youth friendly sexual and reproductive health services; and build local and regional movements to advance political and financial support for family planning and reproductive health. The foundation makes strategic investments to support the scaling up of services; shifting socio-cultural norms to enable communities and families to support young people to make their own sexual and reproductive health decisions, including a delay of early marriage and first pregnancy; and building leadership and advocacy capacity by cultivating new leaders in the region. This includes support of programs in Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo; and targeted investments in Kenya, Rwanda, and regional advocacy.

• Family planning access and quality in the DRC: Tulane University's Community-Based Distribution program has contributed to an impressive increase in modern contraceptive use in Kinshasa, DRC over the past year.

In August 2015, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation shared an update on progress in achieving its commitments to FP2020.

• In 2014, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation made grants in the amount of $20 million toward its FP2020 commitments. In 2015, the foundation anticipates committing an additional $20 million.

In August 2015, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation shared an update on progress in achieving its commitments to FP2020.

• Strengthening donor and recipient country government partnerships, political will, and funding commitments for family planning: In focus areas, the foundation continues to fund grantee partner work to foster an enabling political environment and secure funding commitments for family planning.

Collaborative donor efforts in South Asia totaled approximately $32 million in 2014.

• The Sukh Initiative: The largest of these collaborations is the Sukh Initiative in Karachi, Pakistan–a $15 million initiative to improve family planning access and quality of care. The Sukh Initiative is supported by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Aman Foundation. The program aims to provide more women with access to family planning and seeks to increase contraceptive use by 15 percent by 2018 in underserved Karachi communities.

• Contraceptive Access in India: A second key partnership in South Asia is with the Gates Foundation to support Abt Associates in launching a multi-year initiative to expand access to injectable contraceptives through the private sector in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. 

• Global donor collaboration through Amplify Change: This fund aims to empower young people, men and women to realize their sexual and reproductive health and rights, and increase funding for the most neglected issues within the sexual and reproductive health and rights agenda.

• Strengthening partnerships to advance quality in Sub-Saharan Africa: In Ethiopia, partners initiated discussions on the themes of quality and youth, and made progress in addressing quality of care at the health-post level. Targeted investments in Rwanda have helped foster a climate favorable to improved access to adolescent sexual and reproductive health. At the regional level, several African governments have moved towards integrating family planning into their development agendas.

• Strengthening partnerships to support youth in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Ethiopian Ministry of Women, Children and Youth Affairs, with the support of grantee partner Pathfinder, held the first national Youth Development Forum. Young people, government officials, program managers, private sector representatives and donors gathered to develop a coordinated, multi-sectorial approach to youth development. The foundation engaged with the African Union’s Youth Division to promote the youth agenda across the continent.  

• Strengthening partnerships to advance quality in South Asia: In India, grantees have completed a review of state policies for quality, and the foundation’s partner Population Foundation of India successfully advocated for a government ban on sterilization camps. In Pakistan, implementation plans are being developed in Punjab and Sindh provinces with a focus on quality.