Family planning comes to fore on World Population Day
Half of the growth over next few years will be in Africa
There are approximately 214 million women around the world who want to avoid pregnancy but don’t have access to contraception, according to the United Nations Population Fund. Addressing this unmet need is part of the inspiration for the theme of this year’s World Population Day: “family planning.”
The world has 7.4 billion people in it, and by 2023 the United Nations predicts there will be more than 8 billion people who call the planet home. More than half of this growth will occur in Africa, the continent with the highest fertility rate and lowest use of modern contraceptives.
“Fundamentally if you’re looking at World Population Day, it is at heart a women’s rights issue,” said Roger-Mark DeSouza, director of Population, Environmental Security and Resilience at the non-partisan policy Wilson Center, based in Washington, D.C.
World Population Day is meant to draw attention to the challenges we face with a human population which is constantly growing. Rapid population growth leads to rapid consumption of natural resources, which makes it difficult for countries to feed themselves and recover from the effects of climate change, such as increased flooding, according to DeSouza.
Many African countries are addressing this issue by investing money in women’s empowerment, including the need for contraceptives and education, he said.
Improving women’s rights can be a powerful tool to tackle unsustainable population growth:
uIn both the developing and industrialized world, women with more education have fewer children. uAccess to safe family plan- ning options not only allows women to become more economically productive, but also would result in a 75% decline in unintended pregnancies, unplanned births and induced abortions in developing regions, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive justice and sexual health research institution. WOMEN NEED AUTONOMY AND INFORMATION Groups such as Family Planning 2020 (FP2020) — a U.N.-affiliated organization that matches donor countries such as the U.S. with partner countries in the developing world on family planning goals — aim to give 120 million women and girls access to modern contraceptives by 2020, according to Executive Director Beth Schlachter.
FP2020, which will mark World Population Day with a landmark summit in London, has helped more than 30 million women and girls in the world’s 69 poorest countries. That’s still nearly 20 million fewer than they’d hoped for by this point. The group says it has achieved a record 30% rate of contraceptive use in East and Southern Africa.
Schlachter says the best way to navigate the challenges of rapid population growth in low-income countries is by giving women and girls the autonomy and the tools to decide when and how many children they want to have.
“Family planning is the key that unlocks that process of families and individuals managing those choice for themselves,” Schlachter said.
These decisions slow down population growth and translate to greater economic output for their families and in turn their community and their country, according to Schlachter. IN U.S., FAMILY PLANNING AID IS IN JEOPARDY The U.S. allocates more than $600 million in aid for family planning, though President Trump caused concern this year when he reinstated the Mexico City policy, known as the global gag rule, which prevents money from going to international organizations that are connected to abortion services.
Trump’s proposed budget also slashes international family planning funds and completely defunds the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA).
“The fact that President Trump has sent mixed signals on family planning has caused some uncertainty because the U.S. is the largest donor to family planning,” Schlachter said.
Schlachter says they are preparing to find ways to fill this gap, but hopes Congress will be able to negotiate some funding for USAID.