Testimonies
Partners from the Global South and Experts
Brayant Gonzales
Family Planning Organization of the Philippines (FPOP)
“Since the Philippines is the only Catholic country in Asia (the nearest other such country is East Timor), the Church really asserts its doctrines there, including during elections every three years. They emphasize that we shouldn’t vote for politicians who support family planning. But the last survey on this issue, in 2002, showed that many young people are becoming less religious, especially those in urban areas, who don’t tend to go to mass or are not really practicing their religion.”
Sarita Barpanda
Interact Worldwide, India
“India’s flagship national health programme – the National Rural Health Programme – primarily focuses on family planning, reproductive health and maternal health. But family planning is the most under-implemented aspect. The focus is on maternal health, and people haven’t yet made the connection between maternal health and family planning.”
Nana Amma Oforiwaa Sam
Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana
“In 2007, the Government declared a state of emergency for maternal health, which made it possible for expectant mothers who have registered under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to access free antenatal and delivery care. This was a laudable initiative but the Government also needs to make services available for women who are not giving birth by providing for free contraceptives and family planning (FP) services. If you want to address maternal health, you need a comprehensive package- including FP on the National Health Insurance scheme will help address Ghana’s high unmet need for contraceptives.”
Holo Hochanda
BroadReach Healthcare, Zambia
“If we strategically support the government through policy formulation, which will help to scale up reproductive health services and commodities. I think over time we can have bigger impact by supporting them to develop policies, strategies and creating guidelines, than we would if we were in the streets holding placards. That’s an important strategy as well, but maybe not for us to do.”
Moses Muwonge
SAMASHA Medical, Uganda
“SRHR issues are real, and as a doctor I saw them on a daily basis. What shocked me was the stress girls would have, coming in with many questions but very few answers.”
Esperanza Delgado
MEXFAM, Mexico
“In Mexico, population growth was slowing, but now that trend is stalled. The recent census found that there were five million more people than was projected, and academics and others concluded that this was because the Government has made so little effort to promote family planning.”
Hon. Ruth Nvumetta Kavuma
African Women Leadership Network (AWLN), Uganda
“One of the problems donors bring up is that they think politicians use money for political gain. We have to have more confidence in our politicians to deliver the right things. Also, people only talk about the political, rather than seeing the whole picture: they do not separate the executive branch of the government from the Parliament. Parliament is very useful to work with because it has an oversight role, to assess what the Executive branch is doing. NGOs and CSOs in Uganda would tell you that working with the members of Parliament can help in this regard. We have come a long way in separating the branches of government, and today the Ugandan Parliament is pushing the executive branch to be more accountable.”
Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda
World YWCA, Zimbabwe
“We need donors to trust community organizations to innovate. My experience with the Trust was that it was a tiny initiative borne out of the pain in my family, in this big family, almost a football team. Three of my siblings died of HIV-related illnesses, and two of my siblings have mental health problems. Out of this we said, let’s innovate to transform the community-based social protection network – within the family and community – into a more established district-level resource. Now with this massive outreach in many communities, I feel this is something based in the experience of many people. It’s about how we translate pain into creativity.
Negash Teklu
Population Health Environment (PHE), Ethiopia
“A sector-based approach has been used, but it does not meet the demands of families, which are multifaceted and comprehensive. Our approach should be multifaceted and comprehensive, too.”
Roger-Mark De Souza
Population Action International (PAI), USA
“When we think about unmet need, there’s a recognition that it’s about what women want, and there’s a huge opportunity to fulfil women’s needs. To do that, we have to help to empower them, which leads to multiple benefits for development and planning. This is framing it according to human rights – it’s a no-brainer.”
