Since 1991, there has been mixed evidence as to whether using hormonal contraceptive methods increases a woman’s risk of acquiring HIV. To answer this question the World Health Organization (WHO) has continuously monitored the available evidence. In 2016, WHO commissioned an update of a 2014 systematic review of evidence to include new studies. The updated evidence was examined in December 2016 at a consultation that included a wide range of stakeholders including global representation from clinicians with expertise in contraception and HIV, as well as representatives from affected populations, researchers and academics, epidemiologists, programme managers, policy-makers and guideline methodologists.

One year after Madagascar developed postpartum family planning action plans specific to the needs of this beautiful island nation, I had the chance to visit. The Madagascar country team was one of 16 to leave the 2015 Accelerating Access to Postpartum Family Planning meeting in Thailand with designs to ensure that every woman be offered a means to prevent an unintended pregnancy in the two years after a birth. I was eager to see what had happened since.

On May 16-19, 2016, Performance Monitoring and Accountability 2020, a mobile technology-based population survey project based within The Bill & Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, will join global health leaders, advocates, researchers, policy makers, and others at the fourth Women Deliver conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. Women Deliver is one of the first global conferences since the launch of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), or Global Goals, last September. The theme at this year’s conference is the SDGs and specifically, the implementation of these Global Goals, with a focus on health—in particular, maternal, sexual, and reproductive health and rights.

In fact, Senegalese women are driving important changes in their country, focusing in new ways on their own health and that of their children and communities.

Cooperation between government and the private sector has played a significant role in Senegal’s remarkable progress in increasing contraceptive prevalence, which jumped from 12% in 2012 to 20% in 2014 following years of stagnation.

As a time-bound initiative with an urgent goal, FP2020 has a mandate to adjust as needed to ensure we remain positioned for optimal success.

Building on the decades of work preceding the London Summit, we have seen FP2020’s vast potential to transform the lives of women and girls across the globe. The partnership now includes more than 80 commitment makers—including nearly 40 countries—reflecting a marked increase in political will among governments as well as growing interest across diverse sectors.

Next week, thousands of family planning champions will convene in Nusa Dua, Indonesia for the International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP) to share experiences and strategies for improving worldwide access to quality family planning services. The newly launched Global Financing Facility (GFF) for Every Woman Every Child has the potential to accelerate these efforts and help countries reach the estimated 225 million women with an unmet need for family planning services.

As people around the world celebrate the remarkable Paris Agreement to address climate change, there’s a genuine opportunity for countries to act on their financial pledges to help the world adapt to climate change – especially people in developing countries who are most vulnerable.

USAID has supported family planning programs since 1965. As we move toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the post-2015 development agenda, commitment to family planning must remain a key element of the global agenda.