Every human has the right to good healthcare: ICFP

ICFP has evolved into something much more than a conference. It is now a platform, a movement and a community.

In March 2022, Thailand’s National Steering Committee (NSC) set up and hosted the International Conference on Family Planning Secretariat at the Public Health Ministry to kick off discussions and planning for ICFP2022 to be staged in Pattaya City in November 2022.

Flying to Bangkok to join the one-day meeting was Kellie Welborn, senior program officer of the Bill & Melinda Gates Institute for Population & Reproductive Health.

She said: “Thailand has a record of impressive achievements in Family Planning and reproductive health. Since Thailand’s population policy was announced on March 17, 1970, the country has achieved great success in Family Planning programs, through collaboration with the government and non-government sectors and international organisations which work on Family Planning. Such efforts and accomplishments have finally come to fruition.”

The ICFP2022 is being held from November 14 to 17 at the Pattaya Exhibition and Convention Hall in Royal Cliff Hotel.

The conference, which will be a strategic benchmark as the community prepares to recommit to a goal of universal access by 2030, is in hybrid format (in-person or virtually) www.icfp2022.org. 

Satit Pitutecha, Deputy Minister of Public Health, presided at the opening ceremony of The International Conference on Family Planning 2022 (ICFP2022), the world’s largest scientific conference on family planning (FP) and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), on Monday.

ICFP2022 brings together more than 3,500 global policymakers, researchers, activists, and advocates from over 125 countries to Pattaya.  

The conference’s co-hosts are Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health; the Royal Thai College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RTCOG); Population and Community Development Association (PDA); and the Bill & Melinda Gates Institute for Population & Reproductive Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (USA).

ICFP2022’s theme this year, “Family Planning & Universal Health Coverage: Innovate. Collaborate. Accelerate,” examines the important ways that family planning supports and intersects with universal health coverage. The conference comes at a critical crossroads in global public health, and will provide a platform for leaders to define their FP2030 milestones and commitments against the backdrop of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The Nation team spoke to Jose ‘Oying’ Rimon II, Director of the Bill & Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health.  
 

What are the current risks and challenges to family planning? 

Mr. Oying said, “Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, at least half of the world’s population could not obtain essential health services, including family planning services. An estimated 23 million adolescent girls in low- and middle-income countries were not able to meet their needs for contraception before the pandemic.
 
Health care funding has since largely been diverted to respond to COVID-19 and other global crises, leaving family planning even less accessible. In 2021, it was estimated that 12 million women experienced disruptions to their family planning services during the pandemic, resulting in 1.4 million unintended pregnancies. Globally, we are also seeing threats to sexual and reproductive health and rights from conservative political pushback. 
 
Inequality is also a considerable factor. We know that coverage of reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health interventions varies substantially both within and across countries, with coverage skewing to the most advantaged groups, such as the richest, most educated, or those living in urban areas. These inequalities can be twice as large in low-income countries as in middle-income countries. 
 
As we move forward, it is time to incorporate our many learnings during the pandemic as well as reinstate services where disruption occurred.” 
“This year’s International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP) comes at an urgent moment to convene diverse stakeholders to address these issues and renew our dedication to achieving universal access to family planning by 2030. There has actually been a lot of resilience, innovation and leadership among the reproductive health community during the pandemic too. This year’s conference will have many scientific sessions documenting this resilience and the actions our community took to help mitigate the impact of service disruption,” added Mr. Oying. 
 
What is the Gates Institute’s direction in developing and supporting family planning, including in Thailand? 
 
The Gates Institute supports and accelerates groundbreaking research, advocacy and programmatic work that make positive changes in reproductive health across the globe.
 
One way we do this is by hosting the International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP), the world’s largest scientific conference on family planning and and sexual and reproductive health and rights, every two and a half years. This year’s conference will be the first opportunity for the global family planning community to convene in person since the onset of COVID-19.
 
The Gates Institute also focuses on identifying, developing and preparing a new generation of young leaders in reproductive health worldwide. We have built the capacities of at least 10 southern-based Centers of Excellence in reproductive health, with three of them becoming full-blown schools of public health in training a new generation of leaders in their own countries.
 
We launched and completed the identification of 120Under40 leaders worldwide who are making a difference in their communities through their passion, innovation and leadership. We have supported the establishment of an international youth alliance in family planning, which is now active in more than 100 countries. In the drumbeat toward this conference, this alliance has supported young people from many different organizations worldwide in developing and creating their global program of action that will launch at the youth plenary on the final day of ICFP.

The other areas that the Institute is prioritizing are the creation of platforms on digital health, given how the world has changed since the pandemic, as well as cutting-edge research on actionable innovations in measurement. This includes new ways of measuring progress in real-time using health management information systems; rapid survey techniques using mobile phone technology; and more. 
 
Part of the reason we opted to host ICFP2022 in Thailand is because it allows us to learn from Thailand’s successful family planning and reproductive health programs, which showcase what is possible when government, public health groups, and civil society organizations work together and invest in family planning. 
 
Our theme this year — “Family Planning + Universal Health Coverage: Innovate, Collaborate, Accelerate” — highlights the key role that family planning plays in achieving universal health coverage. Not only is access to family planning and reproductive health services a pillar of good personal and community health, it is also a critical component of a thriving country’s economic health.