Canada’s leadership on family planning

Canada’s announcement of up to $104.4 million at the International Conference on Family Planning in Kigali, Rwanda, will support family planning, advocacy and the prevention of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), while improving access to safe and legal abortion. All projects will also ensure the integration of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) into countries’ health systems.

This investment is part of Canada’s $650-million comprehensive approach to address gaps in funding for SRHR.

The organizations receiving funding, and the funding amounts, are as follows.

Family planning and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services:

International Planned Parenthood Federation: Enabling and empowering young people through rights-based SRH service delivery and comprehensive sexuality education - $8 million (2018 to 2021)

This project will create three regional centres of excellence for youth-centred SRH programs in Latin America and in anglophone and francophone Africa. The centres will improve the quality of and access to SRH services while increasing access to quality comprehensive sexuality education.

Population Services International: Increasing demand for SHR services in West Africa - $8 million (2018 to 2021)

Population Services International (PSI) will focus on expanding access to an increasing demand for SRH services, including safe abortion. In addition, PSI will tackle gender-related barriers by working alongside men, boys and cultural leaders, as well as women and adolescent girls.

Marie Stopes International: Closing persistent gaps in reproductive health service delivery - $8 million (2018 to 2021)

Marie Stopes International (MSI) will increase the availability and use of SRHR services in countries with a great need by focusing on outreach to vulnerable groups through its Blue Door Fund. By responding rapidly to urgent funding gaps for family planning and abortion services, MSI will deliver life-changing services to women and girls in places where they are needed most.

United Nations Populations Fund (UNFPA) Supplies: Increasing access to family planning and contraceptives - $10 million (2019 to 2020)

UNFPA Supplies will expand access to a secure and reliable supply of quality contraceptives and maternal health medicines for poor and marginalized women and girls in 46 countries, while strengthening supply chain management.

Ipas: Increasing access to safe abortion and contraception in Central America and Africa - $6 million (2018 to 2021)

Ipas will provide technical assistance and capacity building on safe abortions and post-abortion care. The project seeks to enhance access to high-quality abortion and contraceptive services that respond to the needs of women and adolescent girls.

Oxfam Canada - Her Future, Her Choice: Strengthening young women’s SRHR - $19.9 million (2018 to 2023)

Her Future, Her Choice seeks to improve adolescent girls and young women’s comprehensive SRHR in eight targeted districts in Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia. The project will reach 250,000 women (80% of them adolescent girls and young women), 90,000 men (youth included), 596 health workers, approximately 1,000 community resource persons and a further 800,000 people indirectly.

Advocacy and SGBV:

BBC Media Action - South Sudan: Amplifying women’s voices - $4.8 million (2018 to 2023)

This project aims to change negative and discriminatory attitudes that limit women and girls’ control over their bodies and reproductive decision making. The project will use radio programs and community mobilization activities that focus on increasing the knowledge of women, men and local leaders on SRHR, gender equality and peaceful resolution to conflict.

UNFPA - Ethiopia: Preventing and responding to SGBV - $14.7 million (2018 to 2023)

This project aims to decrease harmful practices and attitudes in Ethiopia that perpetuate and validate SGBV against women and girls. The project also aims to increase access to gender-responsive SGBV services, as well as improve institutional capacity to develop and implement legal and policy frameworks that promote and protect women’s and girls’ rights with regards to SGBV.

Building SRHR into country health systems:

UNFPA - Integrated health of adolescent girls and women: Improving integrated health services for women, teenage girls and children in Haiti - $25 million (2018 to 2023)

The project seeks to improve the SRH of teenage girls and women, including newborns and children, who were affected by Hurricane Matthew in October 2016. This project will also strengthen 28 health institutions and, in so doing, repair infrastructure, provide equipment and medicine and train staff.