progress report
Advance Family Planning (AFP) is an advocacy initiative comprising 20 partner organizations working to increase the financial investment and political commitment needed to ensure access to quality, voluntary family planning through evidence-based advocacy.
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Where We Work FOCUS COUNTRIES • Burkina Faso • Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) • India • Indonesia • Kenya • Nigeria • Senegal • Tanzania • Uganda
REGIONAL
OPPORTUNITY FUND GRANTS
• African Women’s Development Fund • East Africa Regional Advisor • Partners in Population and Development Africa Regional Office • West Africa Regional Advisor
• Benin • Burkina Faso • DRC • Ethiopia • Kenya
• Mali • Mauritania • Senegal • Sierra Leone • Togo • Zambia
We also support emerging, high-impact family planning advocacy efforts through the Opportunity Fund, a small grants program managed with our partner PAI. The fund helps civil society to seize advocacy opportunities related to the policy and funding decisions needed to accelerate family planning access at district, state, national, and regional levels.
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We Catalyze Advocacy Into Action In 2012 the global community committed to expanding family planning access to an additional 120 million women and girls by 2020, launching the Family Planning 2020 (FP2020) partnership. AFP helps to achieve this goal by mobilizing political leaders, funders, researchers, service providers, religious leaders, and civil society. Collectively, we identify opportunities for change—and act on them. AFP provides decisionmakers with evidence that family planning is a sound investment for individuals, communities, and a nation’s future and is a fundamental part of universal health care. We focus our advocacy efforts on the discrete policy and funding decisions critical to advancing family planning in a given setting; once achieved, these incremental changes—termed “advocacy wins”—demonstrate progress and accelerate momentum toward long-term goals.
Achievements at a Glance
• Since 2009, we have achieved more than 100 advocacy wins with our partners and others committed to family planning. Together, we have made it easier for women, men, and young people to access and use family planning information, services, and supplies. • We helped create 13 new budget allocations for family planning and increased 28 existing ones at national and subnational levels in 12 countries. • From 2013 to 2014 our focused advocacy in 9 countries increased national family planning allocations by 133% and subnational allocations by 115%.
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GLOBAL Influencing the Sustainable Development Goal discussions AFP worked in collaboration with the wider development community to collect nearly 1,000 signatures—more than 75% from the Global South—for the Addis Call to Action, urging the United Nations Secretary-General to prioritize family planning in the post-2015 development agenda.
REGIONAL Accelerating contraceptive method mix in East Africa AFP convened more than 80 experts in Nairobi in April 2014 to develop country-specific action plans to accelerate contraceptive choice in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.
NATIONAL
Sustaining momentum in the DRC AFP galvanized family planning stakeholders to craft the government’s FP2020 commitment and mobilized high-level government support to present it at the 2013 International Conference on Family Planning. The DRC Government pledged US $1 million for the purchase of contraceptives for the first time.
Advocating at Every Level 7
COUNTY
Improving policy in Kenya AFP brought 47 counties together to disseminate policy and training guidelines for communitybased distribution of injectable contraceptives nationwide. Four counties developed and approved five-year costed family planning strategies with AFP assistance.
From Capitals to Communities
Realizing the promises of FP2020 means engaging not only highlevel political leaders, but also decisionmakers at all levels of government. We bridge that gap, convening and informing local actors to address local needs. As a result, more subnational decisionmakers actively support family planning. As more decisionmakers appreciate the benefits of family planning, experts, advocates, and service providers help translate that commitment into concrete policies—and those policies into resources, programs, and significant changes in how quality, voluntary services are delivered. In collaboration with our partners in government and civil society, we have:
VILLAGE
Increasing funding in Indonesia Nearly 650 villages in three districts allocated a total of US $230,000 for family planning activities in their 2015 village budgets through AFP advocacy.
• Enabled 37 policy improvements that expand contraceptive access and choice. • Facilitated 63 subnational advocacy efforts to gain and sustain political and financial support. • Increased family planning funding by 133% at the national level and by 115% at the subnational level (2013-2014) in 5 AFP focus countries and 4 Opportunity Fund countries.
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Amplifying Voices from the Global South
The decisions that will shape the future of development over the next decade and beyond are taking place now. Experts from the Global South have a wealth of experience to share—although unfortunately, high-level decisions are often made in the absence of these voices. AFP supports Southern leaders at the forefront of advocacy efforts to keep family planning high on regional and global health and development agendas. We also help to tie together commitments made by national leaders at the global level with national plans. Our advocates are well-placed to respond quickly and strategically to emerging opportunities and the Sustainable Development Goals process. As AFP contributes to global advocacy efforts and ensures that they complement policymaking at home, AFP’s network of advocates also learn and adapt successful tactics from each other, partnering across borders through South-South collaboration.
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Elevating Family Planning on the Global Stage In collaboration with other advocates and stakeholders, the African Women Leaders Network for Reproductive Health and Family Planning (AWLN)—a partner in the AFP initiative—succeeded in efforts to include strong family planning language in the final outcome report of the 47th Session of the United Nations Commission on Population and Development (CPD47) in New York, April 2014, after eight months of sustained advocacy with strong, consistent messaging at strategic points in the CPD47 development process. This milestone is a critical one for elevating the visibility of family planning on the global stage, engaging high-level leaders from the Global South, and ensuring family planning is included in the post-2015 development agenda.
AWLN IS WORKING TO ENSURE GOVERNMENTS RECOGNIZE THAT …access to family planning is a human right and a key development driver. …sexual and reproductive health and rights are essential to realizing social justice. …all women, men, and young people should have equitable access to a full range of acceptable, affordable, safe, effective, and high-quality contraceptives of choice.
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Diffusing SMART Advocacy for Sustainable Change
Why Do Our Partners Use the AFP Approach? • “The secret behind AFP’s advocacy approach is that it supports partnership between government and civil society and focuses on what we can accomplish together.” —Dr. Hanuni Sogora, Ministry of Health Zanzibar • “AFP [support] in Karanganyar has contributed to budget increases for the family planning program. Within three years there has been a significant budget increase, from 255 million Indonesian Rupiah in 2012 to more than 900 million in 2014. Or, in other words, an increase of 250%. Developing the advocacy strategy and work plan makes the advocacy efforts more effective and efficient.” —Rohman SH, Karanganyar District Working Group • “The very first principle of the AFP SMART approach about being locally driven explains why the approach is successful wherever it is adopted. It helps you think big but forces you to take the required, systematic baby steps to reach your goal.” —Monica Wahengbam, Population Foundation of India
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AFP’s advocacy approach focuses attention on opportunities for action that have the highest potential for success in the near term. We use a SMART—Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound— approach to connect near-term advocacy strategies and wins with broad, long-term goals. The approach transforms the way family planning champions maximize their time and funds to effectively persuade those in power to take action. Ground-tested and adaptable, our tools and resources have been honed through practical application in resource-limited settings. They provide advocates with simple steps to respond quickly, advantageously, and decisively to advocacy opportunities.
AFP Resources Results Cascades
Advocacy Portfolio
Case Studies
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What Will It Take Going Forward? AFP partners and collaborators are fulfilling the promise of advocacy in ensuring universal access to family planning and providing contraceptives to an additional 120 million women and girls by 2020. We are five years away from this ambitious yet crucial aim. Our advocacy advances are translating into progress, but there is still much to do. Going forward, it will take more—more leadership, more resources, and more voices united in support of family planning. We will do our part. We will continue to focus our efforts on opportunities for action that have the highest potential to benefit the men, women, and young people seeking to plan their families and their futures. Recognizing the importance of follow-through, we are also prioritizing tracking for accountability and strengthening our monitoring and evaluation efforts to fully capture the impact of our advocacy and the policy advances it achieves. To learn more, visit advancefamilyplanning.org/progress.
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THE AFP INITIATIVE Bill & Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs African Women’s Development Fund Équilibres et Populations Futures Group Health Promotion Tanzania International Planned Parenthood Federation Jhpiego Kenya Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs Indonesia Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs Tanzania PAI Partners in Population and Development Africa Regional Office Pathfinder Nigeria Planned Parenthood Federation of Nigeria Population Foundation of India Reproductive Health Uganda Réseau Siggil Jigéen United Nations Association Tanzania Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine Yayasan Cipta Cara Padu
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Since 2009
18
37
41
awarded through our Opportunity Fund
enabled to expand contraceptive access & choice
created and/or increased for family planning
grants totaling $702,300
policy improvements
budget allocations
80+
106
facilitated to mobilize partners and collaborators
achieved
SMART advocacy strategy sessions 15
advocacy wins
and counting...
MAY 2015 AFP is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the David & Lucile Packard Foundation, and The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Advance Family Planning Bill & Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health 615 N. Wolfe St. I Suite W4041 I Baltimore, MD 21205 Email: jhsph.afp@jhu.edu Phone: +1 (410) 502 8715 facebook.com/advancefamilyplanning
twitter.com/afpnow
LEARN MORE ONLINE: advancefamilyplanning.org/progress PHOTO CREDITS: Cinzia L. (pg. 1); IAEA Image Bank (pg. 3); 2013 David Colwell, Johns Hopkins University (pg. 7 & 8); Gates Foundation (pg. 11 & 12); and Jose Javier Martin Espartosa (pg. 14).